BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

NO. 47 

ISSUED SEMI-MONTHLY 

Official Series, JSfo. 11 Jul » "h 1905 



SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING COURSES OF STUDY 

AND METHODS OF TEACHING 

IN HIGH SCHOOLS 



Issued by 

The Committee on Affiliated Schools 

The University of Texas 




PUBLISHED KI 

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

Entered as si cond- class mail matter at the Postoffice at Austin, Texas 



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35-1204-lm 

, BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

NO. 47 

ISSUED SEMI-MONTHLY 

Official Series, No. 11 July 1, 1905 



SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING COURSES OF STUDY 

AND METHODS OF TEACHING 

IN HIGH SCHOOLS 



Issued by 

The Committee on Affiliated Schools 

The University of Texas 

3<h 




PUBLISHED BY 

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 

Entered as stcond-class mail matter at the Postoffice at Austin, Texas 



" Cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy. . . . 
It is the only dictator that freemen acknowledge and the only 
security that freemen desire." 

President Mirabeau B. Lamar. 



24 J U L 1905 
D. otD, 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

Introduction 1 

English 9 

History 24 

Mathematics 29 

Latin 31 

Greek 42 

Modern Languages 47 

French 49 

Spanish 52 

German 55 

Botany 60 

Chemistry 71 

Physical Geography 78 

Physics 81 

Physiology and Hygiene 98 

Zoology 101 

Specimen Courses of Study 105 

"The Determining Factors of the Curriculum of the Secondary School" 107 



FACULTY COMMITTEE ON AFFILIATED SCHOOLS. 

William Seneca Sutton, Professor of Education, Chairman. 
George Pierce Garrison, Professor of History. 
Morgan Callaway, Jr., Professor of English. 
Milton Brockett Porter, Professor of Mathematics. 
Edwin Whitfield Fay, Professor of Latin. 
Frederic William Simonds, Professor of Geology. 
Sylvester Primer, Associate Professor of Germanic Languages. 
JcLEiA^W.fcLMA M^ j io ' Pg T iyB, M. A., IiwpvUvi" vf"&ehv t )lgr 



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INTRODUCTION. 

To Superintendents and Principals of Schools: 

The Eegents and the Faculty of The University of Texas realize 
their obligations with respect to the secondary schools, and desire 
to promote in every reasonable and proper way the progress of edu- 
cation throughout the State. Believing that the cultivation of 
close relations between the schools and the University results in 
great good to both, and, in consequence, to the State at large, a 
Faculty committee devotes much time each year to considering 
applications for the affiliation of schools. 

The following are the conditions upon which a school may become 
affiliated : — 

1. When the authorities of any school desire affiliation with 
the University, they will make formal application to the President, 
giving the course of study, the number of teachers, and such infor- 
mation in regard to apparatus, appliances, etc., as may serve to give 
a fair idea of the general efficiency of the school. 

2. If this information be satisfactory, the authorities of the 
school will be asked to submit specimen examination papers pre- 
pared by students pursuing the high-school subjects in which affil- 
iation may be desired. 

3. No school will be affiliated before the President or some 
person designated by him shall have visited it, and shall have ren- 
dered a report concerning its equipment and its work. The visit of 
the inspector may be made at such time as in his judgment is 
most convenient and desirable. The necessary traveling expenses 
of the inspector will be paid by the University. 

4. If the Faculty shall be satisfied that the school should be 
affiliated, the authorities will be duly notified, and the name of the 
school will be entered upon the list of affiliated schools. The list 
will be published in the catalogue of the University. 

5. A graduate of any approved high school shall be entitled 
to enter the University on presentation of his diploma, so long as 
the Faculty is satisfied that no material changes affecting the effi- 
ciency of the school have taken place. Certificates in special 
branches of work shall not be considered as equivalent to a diploma, 
and are not accepted in lieu of entrance examinations. 



2> TeacJiing in High Schools. 

6. To be affiliated at all, the school must prepare its graduates 
for the Freshman Class in English, history, and mathematics. 

7. Complete affiliation includes enough other subjects to admit 
its graduates to the Freshman Class without conditions. 

8. No high school will be affiliated that does not employ in good 
faith at least two teachers, and no school will be affiliated in any 
subject if the recitation-period in that subject be less than 40 
minutes. 

9. It is expected that the principal or superintendent of every 
approved school will send to the President a copy of each of his 
annual reports or catalogues. In return the school will be furnished 
regularly with a catalogue of the University. 

The following statement concerning admission by examination is 
of interest to the authorities of schools desiring affiliation : 

"The subjects which are accepted for admission to the University on 
examination are divided into two groups, the first of which is composed 
of prescribed subjects, the second of electives. For full admission to the 
University, 12% credits are required, if Latin be offered; of which num- 
ber 7y 2 credits are in the prescribed subjects, and 5 are in the elective 
subjects. If Latin be not offered, 13y 2 credits are required for full ad- 
mission; of which number iy 2 are prescribed, and 6 are elective. For the 
present, partial admission to the University may be secured by obtaining 
6 credits in the prescribed subjects, but the remaining credits (prescribed 
and elective) must be secured after admission. Further details concern- 
ing each group are given below. 

"1. The prescribed subjects with the values attached to them are 
as follows : 

(1) Algebra, 1% credits. 

(2) Geometry, iy 2 credits. 

(3) English, 3 credits. 

(4) History, iy 2 credits. 

* # * * # * 

"2. The elective subjects with the values attached to them are as 
follows : 

( 1 ) Botany, 1 credit. 

(2) Chemistry, 1 credit. 

(3) French, 1% credits. 

(4) German, iy 2 credits. 

(5) Greek, 2 credits. 

(6) Latin, 3 credits. 

( 7 ) Physics, 1 credit. 

(8) Physiography. y 2 credit. 

(9) Physiology, y 2 credit. 
(10) Spanish, iy 2 credits. 

"The applicant" must secure five credits in this group, if Latin be 
included. If Latin be not included, six credits must be secured. In any 



Introduction. 3 

case three credits must be in foreign language. For the present any 
applicant who can not present the required amount of eleetives for ad- 
mission, may, except in the case of Latin, be admitted and allowed to 
make up the deficiencies by work in the University. Such work, however, 
will not count towards the degree. 

"A modern language, French, German, or Spanish — (3), (4), or (10) 
above — is prescribed for candidates for the degree of Engineer of Mines; 
and a modern language, restricted to French or German, is prescribed for 
candidates for the degree of Electrical Engineer. The following addi- 
tional entrance options art open to candidates for engineering degrees: 

(11) Mechanical Drawing, 2 credits. 

(12) Manual Training, 2 credits. 

(13) Field Work, 2 credits. 

"To secure credit in any of the subjects the applicant must make a 
grade of D. In grading examination papers in any subject, prescribed or 
elective, account will be taken of the candidate's English." 

The Committee on Affiliation, desiring to be of service to super- 
intendents and principals and teachers whose schools are seeking 
affiliation, deem it expedient to offer suggestions concerning the 
teaching of the several subjects. These suggestions, which were 
prepared by members of the University Faculty, immediately follow 
the introductory statement of this pamphlet. 

The Committee is of the opinion that too many high schools 
are high schools in name only; that, in fact, the work in these 
schools is of such quality as properly belongs to elementary schools. 
It is generally agreed that elementary education should deal 
largely with instructing the child in the school arts, in the symbols 
of reading and writing and arithmetic, etc. It is not expected that 
he will begin in any appreciable degree a mastery of nature or of 
human nature. The law of his being is such as to preclude his 
handling in a thorough manner such subjects as require careful 
discrimination and profound judgment. It is for this reason that 
grammar and logic and other similar subjects have no place in the 
elementary school. The student here looks upon each event in his 
mental process largely as independent of every other event, and 
but slightly connected with that great series of events, which, when 
bound together, form the sum total of his intellectual life. He is, 
indeed, in his intellectual infancy, and he is not expected to draw 
logical conclusions with respect to the nature of things or the 
conduct of life. It is true that, so far as possible, the symbols 
which he learns should not be void of content ; but the truth remains 
that in early years one should not aspire to be a philosopher, for 
he is unable to understand the relations of things, a knowledge of 
which constitutes both the beginning and the end of wisdom. 



4 Teaching in High Schools. 

Eventually the elementary phase of a pupil's school life should 
pass away, and, in the high school, he should come in direct con- 
tact with the thoughtful study of the two great groups of human 
learning, treating, respectively, of nature and human nature. The 
superficial character of the little knowledge he has derived through 
elementary instruction is to be corrected, and he is to enter upon 
that kind of mental effort which will prepare him for dealing in a 
masterful manner with the greater work of higher instruction in 
the University. The student in the high school is to begin to rec- 
ognize processes rather than isolated facts. For example, he should 
acquire the power to discover the unity in the history of a nation, 
in a piece of literature, or in a treatise on some natural science. 
The first real beginnings of culture are to be found in this phase 
of his education, for he is taught in such a way as to give him that 
insight by which is to be obtained a rational view of the civilization 
into which he has been born. But the high school should not 
become too ambitious, and should not attempt work belonging to 
the college or the university. High-school pupils should not be 
encouraged or allowed to undertake studies requiring of the learner 
that grasp of mind which comes only with training and maturity. 

It is during this period of his school life, too, that the youth 
is born again, for, as Rousseau says, "We have two births, so to 
speak ; one for existence, and the other for living : one for the spe- 
cies, and the other for the sex." It is when the pupil reaches the 
high school at the age of twelve or fifteen years that he becomes 
conscious of this second birth, and so the aim in his education 
during this period should be to cause him to comprehend, as far 
as possible, the real purposes of life, and to show him by means of 
the close relationship existing between his school studies and life 
in the world, the possibilities and glories of a human being. 

It is thought by the Committee that sometimes entirely too many 
subjects are found in the high-school course of study. Crowding 
the curriculum results in one of two evils, at times in both. 
First, too little time of the school year may be given to each of the 
subjects, and, second, the student may be required to pursue so 
many subjects during any term that the recitation-periods are 
reduced to such an extent as to render efficient instruction well-nigh 
impossible. With respect to the first evil, it is obviously better that 
a few subjects be taught thoroughly than that a great number be 
treated superficially. To spend fourteen weeks in memorizing the 



Introduction. 5 

definitions and made-to-order classifications of a text-book is a ques- 
tionable exercise to develop the memory. It is in no sense to be 
approved as a substitute for long-continued training in a subject, 
real knowledge of which requires more or less vigorous reflection. 
With respect to the second evil, it is proper to make the same criti- 
cism passed upon the first, that superficiality and even vacuity of 
mind is encouraged. The short recitation of twenty-five or thirty 
minutes is scarcely begun before it terminates. Discussion, which 
reveals the real nature of a subject, and which should form a 
very large portion of instruction in the high school, is possible to 
the slightest degree (only. The Committee is firmly of the 
opinion that the normal amount of work to be prosecuted by the 
average student is given in four studies, in each of which there are 
five recitations a week, each recitation being forty or forty-five min- 
utes long. A different combination, for example, five studies each 
having four recitations a week, might be found desirable. The 
points upon which the members of the Committee unanimously 
agree are that twenty recitations a week are preferable to more than 
twenty, and that each recitation should occupy not less than forty 
minutes. In the appendix to this pamphlet are to be found out- 
lines of two courses of study, which, taken in connection with the 
statements found in the main body of this pamphlet, set forth what 
the Committee believes will prepare the student for the University, 
and at the same time furnish excellent training to that greater 
class of young people whose academic instruction closes with their 
graduation from the secondary school. 

The Committee has reasons for believing that the efficiency of the 
high school is frequently impaired, and seriously impaired, because 
of the fact that teachers are overworked. It is poor economy 
on the part of school authorities so to burden a teacher as to injure 
the quality of his service. Genuine teaching requires the expendi- 
ture of much vital force, and to require one to conduct recitations 
all day long is certainly ill-advised. Six recitations each day, it 
is thought, are sufficient to tax the health and strength of male, 
and especially of female, teachers. If, in the daily programme, 
there be more than six recitation-periods, the instructor can 
make wise use of the vacant period or periods by correcting written 
exercises, by giving assistance to students needing especial atten- 
tion, and by devising plans for future work. The correction of 
written work is of supreme value, and is as necessary to the proper 
instruction of pupils as is the oral recitation. The labor of correct- 



6 Teaching in High Schools. 

ing exercises should, if possible, be done during school hours, and 
should not be postponed to the evening hours, which should be 
devoted to recreation, and to professional work in which the ele- 
ment of drudgery does not occupy prominence. 

The Committee desires to recommend very strongly the advisabil- 
ity of organizing upon the departmental plan, instead of upon the 
grade plan, the instruction given in the high school. The teacher 
in the secondary school is not a mere hearer of recitations. He 
develops insight into subjects. He gives the "color, the tone, the 
air, the life" to the subject he teaches, and makes it live in his 
pupils even as it lives already in himself. Such teaching comes 
from the specialist only, and the high school in which instruction is 
given by specialists is surely accomplishing the purpose for which 
the high school is established, and for which the tax-payer can well 
afford to make generous contribution. By adopting the depart- 
mental plan, an arrangement can easily be made for abolishing the 
grade system altogether, and for establishing the course system 
which now prevails in colleges. If the course system be adopted 
the youth of superior talents would be afforded opportunity to 
complete his high-school studies in less time than the regularly 
prescribed period of four years. It would, furthermore, effectively 
remove from discussion the oft-repeated criticism that the American 
high-school course of study requires too many years for completion, 
and that the bright student, unwilling to sacrifice so much of his 
time in preparation for college or for life, goes out into the world 
poorly equipped to solve its problems and undertake its respon- 
sibilities. 

The Committee desires to call especial attention to the importance 
of laboratory work in connection with natural science. It is the 
unanimous opinion of persons who have the right to speak upon 
this matter, that the laboratory is an absolutely necessary adjunct 
to the proper study of science. The investigation of nature through 
books only is a delusion and a profanation. Elsewhere in this 
pamphlet are given directions concerning the equipment of labora- 
tories, and it is to be hoped that, in every school in which a natural 
science is taught, there will be provided a laboratory, not necessarily 
expensive, but one by means of which the phenomena belonging to 
science may be studied at first hand by the student. The Com- 
mittee desires, furthermore, to call attention to the fact that 
frequently there is failure in natural science work because of an 
attempt to give instruction in too many sciences. Such attempt 



Introduction. 7 

results in giving so little time to any one science that no appreciable 
advantage is derived by the student. It is the part of wisdom 
to devote an entire year, or even more than a year, to chemistry or 
physics or biology, always bearing in mind that work in the 
laboratory is indispensable. No instruction in a natural science 
should be attempted before the means for rational teaching are 
at hand. Let one laboratory be well equipped ; let one science be 
actually taught; then let a similar policy with respect to another 
science be inaugurated. 

In every high school in Texas, it is to be hoped, there is, or soon 
will be, a well-selected library. Its volumes should be chosen with 
special reference to the needs of the high-school student. It should 
contain such books of reference as would be serviceable for collat- 
eral reading along the several lines of study. Pupils should be 
actually trained in the use of the library, and their daily recita- 
tions, their essays, and their exercises in literary societies should 
give evidence of such training. The library -that is widely used is 
of inestimable value, while its influence on the masses of the people 
is by no means to be despised. Every high school owes it to itself 
and to the people who support it to be a center of culture, and man 
has devised no more certain and valuable means of culture than that 
which is afforded in a collection of choice books. Lumber has no 
place in a school library, nor has rubbish. Ugly bindings, small 
type, bad paper are not truly economical; they do not tend to 
develop a taste for books or that love of reading which is one of the 
fairest flowers of education, and which, when many of the acquisi- 
tions of school days are forgotten, remains an unfailing source of 
joy and strength. 

Among the refining influences of the school the character of its 
buildings and grounds should not be overlooked. Neatness every- 
where, scrupulous cleanliness of floors, walls and windows, decora- 
tion by means of busts and pictures, the presence of flowers, all 
silently but surely raise the standard of taste, and exercise influence 
that is potent for gentleness and beauty. 

From time to time, the Inspector of Schools and other members 
of the University Faculty will visit and inspect schools already 
affiliated, as well as those seeking affiliation. These visits will be 
made, not for the purpose of discovering grounds of adverse criti- 
cism, but with the earnest desire to strengthen the bond of union 
between the schools and the University. There is every reason why 
all the workers in the educational system of the State should 



8 Teaching in High Schools. 

be found in hearty co-operation with one another. We should 
all be ready at any time to receive, as well as to give, such criticism 
as may be permitted by courtesy and truth. 

The Committee on Affiliation, therefore, desires to exercise its 
functions in such a spirit as can be commended by all who are inter- 
ested in education in Texas, and it requests the cordial assistance 
of those charged with the management of our secondary schools, 
whose progress in the last decade has been great, and to whose 
greater progress during the next decade the Committee desires to 
make helpful contribution. 

Very respectfully, 

W. S. Sutton, 
Chairman of Committee on Affiliated Schools. 



SUGGESTIONS CONCERNING THE TEACHING OF HIGH- 
SCHOOL SUBJECTS. 



ENGLISH IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 
I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 

The ruling purpose of high-school instruction in English, as in 
all other subjects, should be to develop insight and power rather 
than to impart information, or, better perhaps, to develop insight 
and power along with the impartation of knowledge. For we must 
guard against the error of supposing that there is any inherent 
opposition between the acquisition of knowledge and the develop- 
ment of spirit. The two may be divorced, and, unfortunately, 
often are; then it is that the letter killeth. But knowledge and 
spirit should go together as body and soul; and they do, I take it, 
in all first-rate teaching. That this principle has an immediate 
practical bearing on the theme under discussion, all will allow; 
that it has a far more important bearing than at first appears, will 
be evident later on.* 

If it is desired that this general statement be put in a more defi- 
nite and tangible form, it may be stated as follows : the high-school 
student should so thoroughly master the essential facts and prin- 
ciples of the several English subjects studied as to give him a fair 
working knowledge of his mother-tongue, both in conversation and 
in writing, and to enable him to understand and to appreciate what 
others say or write therein. In a word: while theoretical knowl- 
edge is not to be discouraged, while indeed a certain amount is 
indispensable, it is the handling knowledge that should always be 
uppermost. And so many and such practical exercises should be 
given as to develop in the student a good habit and a high ideal. 

The English studies of the high school are generally grouped 
under three heads — Grammar, Composition (and Rhetoric), and 
Literature. But, while for convenience these subjects are sepa- 
rately named, they are not in essence distinct and divisible ; on the 

*This paragraph and several others in this and the following sections 
are taken almost bodily from the author's essay on English Composition 
in the High School, which appeared in the Texas School Journal for Jan- 
uary, 1897. 



10 Teaching in High Schools. 

contrary, they are so closely interdependent that each is best 
studied and most effectively taught in the light of this correlation. 
And it is the failure to observe this correlation that has so often 
brought English teaching into disrepute. Cannot each one of us 
recall teachers that failed to show the pupil the vital connection 
between grammar and composition, who seemed themselves igno- 
rant of such connection? This relation has been no less forcibly 
than clearly put by one of our earlier grammarians, Samuel S. 
Green, in his Analysis: "(1) As a sentence is the expression of a 
thought, and as the elements of a sentence are expressions for the 
elements of thought, the pupil who is taught to separate a sentence 
into its elements is learning to analyze thought, and consequently 
to think. (2) The relations between different forms of thought 
and appropriate forms of expressions are seen most clearly by means 
of analysis and construction.'"* That is to say, grammar must be 
studied from the synthetic as well as the analytic standpoint; the 
pupil must build sentences of his own as well as analyze those of 
others ; grammar and composition must be taught, not in isolation, 
but in the closest conjunction. And so studied, I venture to say 
that grammar is never dull. Once more: have not all of us at 
times failed to show our students the essential connection between 
composition and literature? The relationship is two-fold. First, 
the principles of English composition are drawn from the master- 
pieces of English literature; hence, while text-books on composi- 
tion are helpful, if not indispensable, the best instruction is to be 
found in the critical analysis of an English masterpiece, not merely 
sentence by sentence, as has long been the case, but paragraph by 
paragraph, section * * by section, and chapter by chapter, as is grad- 
ually coming to be the fashion. In the second place, the poorest 
composition ever handed in by a student is as truly a product of the 
creative faculty as is the greatest masterpiece; for, while in degree 
they are as far apart as the east and the west, in kind they are 
absolutely one. To present this view of English composition to 
one's students is inevitably to lead them the more intelligently to 
interpret literature and the more earnestly to strive to make their 
own compositions works of art. 

Not only are these English subjects often divorced from one 
another; but what is worse, they are divorced from life. By this 



*The italics are mine. 

**In this paper the word section denotes a series of related paragraphs 
within a chapter. 



English. 11 

I mean that the student, not only of the high school, but, alas, of 
the college also, at times fails to see that his study of grammar, of 
composition, and of literature is intimately bound up with every- 
day life ; that whatever knowledge he has acquired of these subjects 
will be of incalculable advantage to him whenever and wherever he 
has occasion to think and to express thought, whether orally or in 
writing, in the study of science as well as of literature, on the play- 
ground as well as in the school-room, in the briefest exercise as 
well as in the most elaborate essay ; in brief, every hour of his life, 
no matter what may be his occupation. 

Having stated broadly these general principles, I take up the 
three English subjects one by one and attempt very briefly to apply 
these principles to each. At the close of each section there is given 
a brief bibliography. 

II. GRAMMAR. 

In the high school, grammar is to be studied as a means, not as 
an end; for the science of grammar should, I think, be postponed 
to the college course. But whatever instruction is given therein, 
should from the outset have a sound scientific and historical basis. 
To this end the high-school teacher should acquaint himself at first 
hand with the history of the English language from its origins to 
the present by reading representative texts in the original. If, 
unfortunately, the teacher has not had and cannot give himself the 
advantage of such training, the next best thing is to study care- 
fully some standard history of the English language and some 
authoritative historical English grammar. 

What is to be guarded against is a systemless practicalism on the 
one hand and a too strict formalism on the other. The work, of 
course, becomes more systematic toward the close of the high-school 
curriculum; and it may be well to give a thorough review of the 
subject in the senior year. That in one way or another grammar 
should be studied throughout the whole of the high-school course, 
the writer is thoroughly convinced. Indeed, he has at times to 
teach it himself in his University classes. It is earnestly recom- 
mended, therefore, -that the high-school student be required to 
master some such book as Whitney's Essentials of English Gram- 
mar. 

As stated in section I, grammar should be studied in intimate 
conjunction with composition and with literature. This does not 
look to the abandonment of a set text-book in grammar, but to 
the constant supplementing of the text-book by exercises in com- 



12 Teaching in High Schools. 

position and by the analysis of literary masterpieces, at first pref- 
erably in prose. 

Again, the bearing of grammar upon life should be shown by 
constantly taking account in a tactful and yet firm way of the 
pupil's conversation and of his papers in subjects other than Eng- 
lish. 

The value of the study of grammar has perhaps never been better 
stated than by Professor Laurie in his chapter on "Language as a 
Formal Discipline," in Lectures on Language and Linguistic 
Method: "By the analysis of language, then, you introduce the 
young intellect to the analysis of its own thinking in its whole 
range. While engaged in this exercise the abstract powers are so 
involved in a concrete familiar to all that the formal discipline is 
not made obtrusive and distasteful. A boy who is intelligently ana- 
lyzing language is analyzing processes of thought, and is a logician 
without knowing it. And this is the reason why the study of lan- 
guage has always been regarded as the best preparation for the logi- 
cian and the philosopher. Hence, too, it is the best preparation for 
the study of all or any of the sciences." 

Last year, in our University Summer School, a course was given 
on Historical English Grammar for the especial benefit of those 
teachers who had not had collegiate training in that subject, and 
the conductor of the course was so delighted with the results that 
it is proposed to repeat and to extend the course in the summer 
session of 1905. 

Bibliography * 

1. Text-books Suitable for High Schools : — Whitney's Essentials 
of English Grammar (G-.) or Whitney and Lockwood's English 
Grammar (G.). 

2. Books for the Teacher and for, Eeference : — Emerson's His- 
tory of the English Language (M.) or Lounsbury's History of the 
English Language (H.) ; Morris and Kellner's Historical Outlines 
of English Accidence (M.) : Kellner's Historical Outlines of 

* The abbreviations used in this and the following bibliographies are as 
follows: A. B. C. = American Book Co., New York; Al. =Allyn & Bacon, 
Boston; Ap.=D. Appleton & Co., New York; C. = T. Y. Crowell & Co., 
New York; F.=Henry Frowde, New York; G.=Ginn & Co., Boston; H. 
=Henry Holt & Co., New York; Heath=D. C. Heath & Co., Boston; Ho.= 
Houghion, Mifflin & Co., Boston; Leach=Leach, Shewell & Sanborn, Boston; 
Longmans=Longmans, Green & Co., New York; M.=The Macmillan Co., 
New York; P. =G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York; Scott=Scott, Foresman & 
Co., Chicago; Sibley=Sibley & Ducker, Boston. 



English. 13 

English Syntax (M.) ; Onions's An Advanced English Syntax 
(Sonnenscliein & Co., London) ; and the standard historical Eng- 
lish grammar, that by Henry Sweet, of which there are three ver- 
sions, all published by Frowde: (1) A New English Grammar,, 2 
vols.; (2) A Short Historical English Grammar; and (3) A 
Primer of Historical English Grammar. For the teacher who de- 
sires to learn Old and Middle English at first hand, perhaps the 
best books are Smith's Old English Grammar (Al.) and Liddell's 
Chaucer (M.). 

3. Pedagogical Books: — Carpenter, Baker, and Scott's The 
Teaching of English in the Elementary and the Secondary School 
(Longmans) ; Chubb's The Teaching of English in the Ele- 
mentary and the Secondary School (M.). 

III. COMPOSITION". 

The purpose of teaching Composition is, all will allow, to enable 
the pupil easily and babitually to write and to speak* well. But 
what is meant by "to write well"? Lest the writer should appear 
to be advocating individual idiosyncrasies, he will answer in the 
words of that distinguished scholar, James Morgan Hart, Professor 
of English Philology and Ehetoric in Cornell University ("The 
Outlook for English" in The School Review for January, 1894) : 
"To write well means to spell correctly, to discriminate in the 
use of words, to arrange words in proper grammatical relation, to 
group sentences in a paragraph organized around a central thought 
or opinion, to co-ordinate half a dozen or more paragraphs so as 
to indicate, approximately at least, some evolution of the thinking 
faculty." So far as I know, every one whose opinion is entitled 
to respect is in substantial agreement with Professor Hart. The 
writer himself used a similar statement in 1891, in an address 
before the Southern Educational Association on English in Our 
Preparatory Schools.** 

So far as composition is concerned, the requirements for admis- 
sion to college throughout the Union are now practically in accord 



*After this sentence had been put in type, I received a copy of Scott 
and Denney's Elementary English Composition (Al.), which is peculiarly 
happy in showing the intimate and organic connection between spoken 
and written discourse. The book is intended for the first year of the 
high school, and is a simple and inspiring introduction to the subject 
treated. 

**Published in the Association's Proceedings of that year. 



14 Teaching in High Schools. 

with Professor Hart's definition ; for in almost every catalogue, 
especially of the older and larger colleges, one reads this sentence : 
"No candidate will be accepted whose work is notably defective in 
point of spelling, punctuation, idiom, or division into paragraphs." 
Although, as stated above, I proposed substantially these require- 
ments in 1891, they have not been enforced at the University of 
Texas, because to have done so would have cut off many candidates 
and many affiliated schools. It is proposed, however, to enforce 
these requirements at no distant day. 

As our students from the high schools seem to me weakest in 
composition, and as a mastery of the principles of composition is 
indispensable to the appreciation of literature, I offer a few sug- 
gestions as to the teaching of composition, which are based upon 
Professor Hart's definition of "writing well." 

The definition takes account, it will be observed, both of form 
and of thought; each of which is as necessary to the other as body 
to soul and soul to body. 

Tbe importance of thought in composition is, perhaps, univer- 
sally recognized; but not so with form, if we are to judge from the 
slovenly manuscripts that year after year are presented by many 
high-school pupils and that appear over the signature of some 
teachers. Yet, on sober reflection, the intelligent must see that 
form as truly expresses thought as the contour of the face indicates 
the conceptions of the mind and the emotions of the soul. Habit- 
ually to be careless of form, then, is habitually to be regardless 
of thought or, at least, of its accurate denotation. I think, there- 
fore, that every teacher of composition should rigidly demand of 
his pupils the habitual observance of the conventional "forms" of 
composition ; that is, to be specific, he should require his students to 
write a legible hand; to spell correctly, to capitalize properly, to 
punctuate as he writes, to space and to underscore as occasion de- 
mands, and invariably to indicate paragraph, section, and chapter 
divisions. I dwell on this because I believe it to be, in its way, of the 
utmost importance ; and, since some forms must be used in writing, 
why should we not adopt those that express sense rather than non- 
sense? Nor am I pushing this demand one whit beyond what is 
done by all English teachers of high standing. I have already 
quoted the regulation adopted by nearly all the colleges of the 
nation. The following are the words of one of the most successful 
as well as the most eminent of secondary teachers, Samuel Thurber, 



English. 15 

of the Girls' High School, Boston ("The Conditions Needed for the 
Successful Teaching of English Composition," in The School 
Review for January, 1894) : "The teacher who has a contempt for 
spelling, for penmanship, for neatness of expressions, being filled 
with a devouring enthusiasm for aorists, reactions, volts, specific 
gravities, or what not, is a well known specimen in education. In 
the higher education, narrow specialist as he is, and haughtily as 
he may look down upon the aesthetic conventions, he is doubtless 
wanted, for here habits are already formed and fixed, and young 
men in this stage must have learned to make their account with 
idiosyncrasies." Of the same purport is the deliverance of Arlo 
Bates, poet as well as professor of English (Talks on Writing 
English, Ho., 1896, p. 29) : "In all composition, it may be 
remarked, it is necessary to remember that the punctuation is as 
integral and as important a part of what is written as are the 
words. * * * The student has not mastered even the prelim- 
inary stages of composition who is not as sure of the punctuation 
of a page as he is of its grammatical construction." Equally as 
emphatic is Professor Hart, who declares (The School Review, Jan- 
uary, 1893, p. 38) : "There are students in this university (Cor- 
nell) who are unable to copy correctly what is set before them!" 
and who asks, "Shall we never live up to the truth that the eye is 
to be trained to see the signs of speech no less than the figures of 
geometry ?" 

But let us not forget the greater half of this definition; for the 
basis of all composition is thought. Now, the symbols of thought 
in written discourse are words. But as a rule words mean nothing 
in isolation; to attach a definite significance to them we must in 
prose — to the consideration of which we limit ourselves — arrange 
them into sentences, paragraphs, and whole compositions. Since 
every piece of composition, then, is made up of words arranged into 
sentences, paragraphs, or whole compositions, we may consider these 
four things as the elements of composition. That the skillful han- 
dling of these elements calls for acute thinking as well as persistent 
practice, will be allowed by all thoughtful people. Each one of 
us has had to rack his brain for the fit word; each one has had 
abundant opportunity to realize that, as John Stuart Mill puts it, 
"The structure of every sentence is a lesson in logic." How much 
more true is this of the paragraph, which is not, as a beginner once 
defined it, "a gob of sentences/' but a group of sentences constitut- 
ing the development of a single topic ! Strange to say, this third 



16 Teaching in High Schools. 

unit of structure has been definitely treated only during the last 
thirty-eight years.* At present, however, all first-class instruction 
in composition is based on the structure of the paragraph. The 
reason of this is obvious; the sentence is too short, and the whole 
composition is too long to admit of frequent profitable exercises; 
while the paragraph, striking the mean, is a godsend to both teacher 
and pupil. Despite the general discussion of the paragraph in the 
educational world, I have in recent years met a few teachers who 
were in the same condition with reference to it that certain Ephe- 
sians were concerning the Holy Ghost (Acts, 19:2) : "He (Paul) 
said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye be- 
lieved? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard 
whether there be any Holy Ghost." To use effectively any one of 
these elements, then, one must think. But may there not be some 
definite principles underlying and controlling this grouping of 
words into sentences, paragraphs, and whole compositions? Yes, 
aside from use, which, Horace tells us, is the general law of lan- 
guage, there are three principles of composition, which regulate 
alike the structure of the sentence, of the paragraph, and of the 
whole composition. They are the principle of unity, which de- 
mand oneness of thought, singleness of aim; that is, that every 
piece of composition (sentence, paragraph, or whole) should group 
itself about one central idea; the principle of emphasis, which de- 
mands that important thoughts be made prominent, usually by the 
order or by the number of words expressing the thoughts; and the 
principle of coherence, which demands that related thoughts be so 
put together that the relation of each thought-element to its neigh- 
bor shall be unmistakable. Time forbids even a brief discussion 
of these principles, but the interested will find a brilliant treatment 
in Professor Barrett Wendell's English Composition (New York: 
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894), the best book on the subject and one 
to which the writer is deeply indebted. 

The work in composition should be correlated with that in gram- 
mar by applying the principles of grammar to the correction of 
the pupil's own errors in inflection or in syntax. It should be cor- 
related with that in literature by deducing the principles of compo- 
sition from prose masterpieces, by applying these principles in 
turn to the other selections studied, and by frequently assigning 



*Since 1866, when Bain discussed the matter in his Manual of English 
Composition and Rhetoric. See Lewis's The History of the English Par- 
agraph (The University of Chicago Press, 1894), p. 20. 



English. 17 

themes from the literary masterpieces, both from those studied in 
the class and those read at home. This is a point of vital import- 
ance, since most great writers have become such largely through the 
copious reading and careful study of good literature.* 

Moreover, the work in composition should be correlated with that 
in all the other subjects taught in the high school by occasionally 
selecting themes from those departments and by the departmental 
teacher's requiring good English in every exercise handed him. 
The teachers of History and Foreign Languages can greatly help 
the teacher of English and themselves by requiring frequent writ- 
ten exercises; and the English teacher should at times accept as 
exercises in composition the papers prepared for the teachers of 
History and Foreign Languages. 

Above all, the composition work must not be divorced from the 
pupil's life. Hence most of the subjects should be such as natu- 
rally arise, in which he is already interested or can easily become 
interested. Even grown people write and speak ill when an oppor- 
tunity is made instead of seized. In a word, the pupil must be 
made to see that he studies composition, not to be able to get up 
an essay for public reading on Friday afternoons, but to enable 
him to think, to write, and to speak the more clearly and effectively 
on whatever topic engages his attention at any time and in any 
place. 

As already stated incidentally, the practice should be abundant; 
and, if the plan suggested is followed, the most effective sort of 
practice would be given every day, without the student's knowing 
it. Certainly no week should pass without some regular exercise. 

It is believed, too, that it is best to have the instruction in com- 
position and rhetoric based on some good text-book. And it is 
expected that the graduate of the Affiliated High School will have 
mastered theoretically and practically a book of the grade of Her- 
rick and Damon's Composition and Rhetoric. 

Finally, it may not be improper to state that in our University 



* Since writing the above, I have received a little book, Webster's Eng- 
lish: Composition and Literature (Ho., 1900), which lays particular stress 
upon the correlation of composition and literature, and which will be 
of great, help to every high-school teacher of English. Mead's Practical 
Composition and Rhetoric (Sibley, 1900) is likewise very valuable in 
this respect, especially the chapter entitled "Topics Based on Reading," 
which will be of incalculable advantage to the teacher. Another book 
that stresses the correlation of composition and literature is Scott and 
Denney's Composition-Literature (Al., 1902). 



IS Teaching in High Schools. 

Summer School this year there will be given a course in composi- 
tion especially designed for teachers ; and those that have not had 
the advantage of strict training in this subject are earnestly ad- 
vised to avail themselves of this opportunity. 

Bibliography. 

1. Text-books Suitable for High Schools: — Herrick and Da- 
mon's Composition and Rhetoric for Schools (Scott) ; Genung's 
Outlines of Rhetoric (G.) ; Scott and Denney's Elementary Eng- 
lish Composition and Composition-Rhetoric or Composition-Litera- 
ture (Al.). 

2. Books for the Teacher and for Reference : — Wendell's English 
Composition (Scribners, New York) ; Genung's The Working Prin- 
ciples of Rhetoric (G.) ; Genung's Rhetorical Analysis (G.) ; Hill's 
The Principles of Rhetoric (Harpers, New York) ; Newcomer's 
Elements of Rhetoric (H.) ; Hale's Constructive Rhetoric (H.) ; 
Brewster's Studies in Structure and Style (M.) ; Hart's Handbook 
of Composition (Eldredge & Bro., Philadelphia) ; Scott and Den- 
ney's Paragraph AY riting (Al.) ; Webster's English: Composition 
and Literature (Ho.) ; De Quincey's Essays on Style, Rhetoric, and 
Language, edited by Scott (Al.) ; Baker's Principles of Argument 
tation (G.) ; Brewster's Specimens of Narration (H.) ; Baldwin's 
Specimens of Description (H.). 

3. Pedagogical Books : — See 3 under Bibliography to Grammar. 

IV. LITERATURE. 

But, important as are grammar and composition, they must both 
yield the palm to literature ; for, in the words of one of the South's 
most distinguished teachers, the late Professor Thomas R. Price, of 
Columbia University : "Foremost among all the means of educa- 
tion, highest among all the duties of the teacher, stands the pleas- 
ant privilege of reading with his classes the great English authors. 
For this, if skillfully managed, will serve not only to give solidity 
to the young men's knowledge of their own language, but, also, 
what is even more weighty, to stimulate their love of reading and to 
shape their principles of taste. In doing this or in failing to do 
this lies after all the true criterion of education." 

It is now a commonplace, yet one that cannot be too often re- 
peated, that the study of literature consists in the first-hand, intelli- 
gent, and sympathetic study of masterpieces, not in the learning 
of what some one else has said about these masterpieces. How, 



English. 19 

then, shall they be studied? I have already suggested that from 
these literary monuments may be deduced the principles of gram- 
mar and of composition; and that these principles in turn will help 
to elucidate the meaning of the masterpieces. Of course, gram- 
matical and rhetorical analysis may be carried so far as to take the 
life out of the best piece of literature in the world; but this would 
be impossible with a judicious teacher. And a modicum of such 
analysis is not only a test of the student's comprehension, but is 
perhaps indispensable to the full understanding of most literature. 

Again, a piece should be studied in its historical setting: its rela- 
tion to its author, the country in which he lived, the tendencies of 
the times, etc. Thus the work in literature supplements that in 
history and vice versa. By the judicious assignment of biograph- 
ical and historical topics to the pupil he is not only interested from 
the outset, but he has prepared for himself the best possible back- 
ground for the more strictly literary study that is to follow. 

These preliminary issues settled, one may take up the selection 
itself. When possible, it should be read in its entirety in one or 
two sittings at home in order that everyone may acquire a working 
knowledge of the piece as a whole. A good help to the acquisition 
of such knowledge and, also, a test is to require a brief, coherent 
summary of the whole in the best possible English or occasionally in 
skeleton outline only. Then comes the time for a minute study : for 
the solving of specially difficult passages ; for the dwelling on others 
noteworthy for nobility of thought and for beauty of expression; 
for the occasional memorizing of such passages ; finally for the con- 
sideration of the artistic worth of the whole and an adequate ap- 
preciation of what the masterpiece stands for in the world of 
thought and in the life of man. 

All that has been said above applies equally to every type of lit- 
erature. But the artistic element of the masterpiece varies with the 
type ; we look, for instance, for different qualities in the lyric from 
what we do in the drama, and in the essay from what we do in the 
novel. Accordingly, every piece of literature should be studied in 
the light of the principles of the type to which it belongs. The 
pupil should be led to discover what are the essential characteristics 
of the type studied. To this end our histories of literature should, 
at the first mention of each type, state its essential principles, and, 
perhaps, give a very brief historical survey of the species, the fuller 
treatment being left for the later chapters. Books especially help- 



20 Teaching in High Schools. 

ful to the teacher in this regard are named below under the head 
of literary criticism. 

If thus far much has been said of summarizing, of types, and the 
like, and little of the spirit, it is because to the writer there is no 
known way of getting to the immaterial and spiritual except 
through the material (words, paragraphs, verses, plot, etc.) ; and 
because he does not believe it possible intelligently to enjoy the 
spirit of literature without first being able fairly to understand its 
elements. Even the Divine Being was not genuinely apprehensible 
to mortals until He took upon himself the form of man. But the 
writer believes that it is the spirit that giveth life in literature as 
well as in religion ; and that the appreciation of the spirit of liter- 
ature should be the goal of all English teaching. He is convinced, 
moreover, that a faithful trial of the above plan, which is substan- 
tially that of all the more successful teachers of literature, will not 
only rescue the teaching of English literature from much of its 
vagueness, but will also give it body and soul. 

In literature, as in grammar and composition, it is best, I think, 
to base the instruction on a good text-book, but, as already indi- 
cated, not to limit it thereto. The systematic history of English and 
American literature should not be attempted until the later years 
of the high-school course ; but by the end of that period the student 
should have mastered some such book as Pancoast's English Litera- 
ture and Bronson's American Literature. Of course, a real mas- 
tery of these text-books carries with it the intelligent and sympa- 
thetic study at first-hand of a large number of literary master- 
pieces, both in prose and verse. And this sympathetic study of 
the masterpieces, as I said at the outset, is worth infinitely more 
'than merely to know the history of English literature. But, in its 
proper place, the history is of great importance, and it can be 
learned better, it is believed, from a good text-book than from a 
lecture. In the high school, as in the freshman class of the college, 
even a poor text-book is more helpful than most lectures. Occa- 
sional lectures, however, are distinctly helpful. 

But, aside from the class-room study of the masterpieces, the 
high-school student should do much parallel reading, some under 
direction and some at his own will. He should read, say, at least 
five books a year, and should make written reports thereon. It is 
not my purpose to make a list of books suitable for parallel read- 
ing; this the teacher can do for himself. But the most intelligent 
instructor will find help in the list recommended in The Report of 



English. 21 

the Committee on College Entrance Requirements (July, 1899, p. 
17). Besides, several excellent series are named below in the bibli- 
ography. 

Intelligent class-room study and general reading alike will be 
impossible without a small but well selected school library; and 
superintendents, principals, and teachers are urged to make every 
effort to secure such a library immediately. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

1. Text-books Suitable for High Schools: — 

(a) Histories of English Literature: Pancoast's Introduction 
to English Literature (H.) ; Pancoast's Representative English Lit- 
erature (with selections) (H.) ; Painter's Introduction to English 
Literature (with selections) (Sibley). 

(b) Histories of American Literature: Bronson's American 
Literature (Heath) ; Pancoast's Introduction to American Litera- 
ture (H.) ; Newcomer's American Literature (Scott). 

(c) Texts: The Eiverside Literature Series (Ho.) ; The Lake 
English Classics (Scott) ; The Students' Series of English Classics 
(Leach) ; Longmans's English Classics (Longmans, Green & Co., 
New York) ; Macmillan's Pocket Classics (M.) ; English Readings 
(H.) ; Heath's English Classics (Heath) ; Syle's English Poems 
from Milton to Tennyson (Al.) ; Scudder's American Poems 
(Ho.) ; Weber's The Southern Poets (M.). 

2. Books for the Teacher and for Eeference : — 

(a) History of English and American Literature: Ten Brink's 
Early English Literature, 2 vols. (H.) ; Brooke's Early English 
Literature and English Literature from the Beginning to the Nor- 
man Conquest (M.) ; Saintsbury's Elizabethan Literature, Nine- 
teenth Century Literature, and A Short History of English Litera- 
ture (M.) ; Gosse's Eighteenth Century Literature (M.) ; Brooke's 
English Literature (M.) ; Taine's English Literature (H.) ; Rich- 
ardson's American Literature, 2 vols. (Putnams, New York) ; 
Trent's American Literature (Ap.) ; Stedman's American Poets and 
Victorian Poets (Ho.). 

(b) Biography: The English Men of Letters Series 
(Macmillan) ; The Great Writers Series (Walter Scott), to 

each volume of which is appended a bibliography; Modern English 
Writers Series (Dodd, Mead & Co.) ; Sidney Lee's Life of Shakes- 
peare (M.) ; Stephen's Dictionary of National Biography (36 vols., 
M.) ; American Men of Letters Series (Ho.). 



22 Teaching in High Schools. 

(e) Literary Criticism: Winchester's Principles of Literary 
Criticism (M.) ; Cross's The Development of the English Novel 
(M.); Stoddard's The Evolution of the English Novel (M.) ; 
Perry's .4 Study of Prose Fiction (Ho.) ; Moulton's Shal-espeare as 
a Dramatic Artist (F.) ; Dowden's Shal-espeare: His Mind and 
Art (Lemcke & Buecriner; New York) ; Brandes's William Shake- 
speare: A Critical Study (M.) ; Freytag's Technique of the Drama 
(S. C. Griggs & Co., Chicago) ; Woodbridge's The Drama: Its Law 
and Its Technique (Al.) ; Stedman's The Nature of Poetry (Ho.) ; 
Gayley and Scott's Methods and Material* of Literary Criticism- 
(G.), with a full bibliography; Brooke's Tennyson: His Art and 
Relation to Modern Life (P.) ; Brooke's The Poetry of Robert 
Browning (C). 

(d) Texts: The Globe Edition of the Poets (M.) ; The Cam- 
bridge Edition of the Poets (Ho.) ; The Athenaeum Press Series 
(G.) ; annotated editions of Shakespeare: Furness's (Lippincott, 
Philadelphia), Wright's (F.), Eolfe's (A. B. C.), Hudson's (G.), 
the Arden (Heath) ; Ward's The English Poets (4 vols., M.), the 
best anthology; Palgrave's The Golden- Treasury of the Best Songs 
and Lyrics in the English Language (M.) ; Hales's Longer English 
Poems (M.) ; Pancoast's Standard English Poems (H.) ; Stedman 
and Hutchinson's Library of American Literature (6 vols., The 
Century Company, New York) ; Stedman's Victorian Anthology 
and American Anthology (Ho.) ; etc., etc. 

(e) Dictionaries, etc.: Webster's International (Merriam, 
Springfield, Mass.) ; Worcester's Unabridged (Lippincott, Phila- 
delphia) ; The Century Dictionary (The Century Company, New 
York) ; Gayley's Classic Myths in English Literature (G.) ; 
Adams's Dictionary of American Authors (Ho.) ; Kyland's Chro- 
nological Outlines of English Literature (M.) ; Whitcomb's Chro- 
nological Outlines of American Literature (M.) ; etc., etc. 

3. Pedagogical Books. — See 3 under Bibliography to Gram- 
mar. 

v. CONCLUSION. 

In conclusion, let me say that, both in the regular and in the 
summer session of the University of Texas, the School of English 

*The Variorum Shakespeare, by Furness, should be in the library of 
every school. As each volume gives a complete summary of the criticism 
upon the play treated, the Variorum is a Shakespeare library within 
itself. So far thirteen volumes have appeared. 



English. 23 

is trying to train up a set of teachers who will be thoroughly con- 
versant at first hand with the history of the English language and 
literature, and who will know and exemplify the best methods of 
teaching grammar, composition, and literature. When requested, 
the department will nominate teachers of English. In a word, the 
School of English is at the service of the Affiliated High Schools 
and of the people of Texas, and Avill count it a privilege to help 
them in every way possible. 

Morgan Callaway., Jr., 
Professor of English. 



HISTOKY IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

History should be so taught in the high school as to assist in 
developing in the students an intelligent insight. They should be 
trained to look behind the tales full of human interest that drew 
them towards the subject in the lower grades and study it rather 
as a process of political and social evolution which goes on naturally 
and is theoretically capable of scientific explanation in all its 
aspects. Above all things they should be led to cultivate the habit 
of organizing the details of the information they gather inJ:o a 
rational and systematic body of knowledge, capable of control and 
use for the acquisition of more. Knowledge thus organized, what- 
ever may be its subject matter, is properly called science. That 
method of teaching any subject, from pure mathematics to litera- 
ture, which strives to fill the memory with a chaotic mass of unre- 
lated facts can not be too strongly condemned. Owing to the 
special difficulties that lie in the way of giving rational and com- 
plete organization to historical knowledge, the method in question 
is perhaps more mischievous in teaching history than almost any- 
thing else. It is of little use .to the student to hand over to him, 
as it were, long lists of names and dates and bits of fragmentary 
information as to the public doings and experiences of men. He 
will never see by the help of any such instruction, the real life of 
the past. 

The best means of organizing historical knowledge is the use of 
outlines, which ought to be as rigorously logical as they can be 
made. The division into periods and sub-periods ought to corre- 
spond to natural divisions of the historical process itself. For 
example, an outline of American history would have such main 
heads as the periods of Discovery and Exploration, of Colonization, 
of Inter-Colonial Wars, etc., not simply because this arrangement 
will facilitate the work of teacher and student, but because the 
actual unfolding of the history was by just such stages or phases. 
Every new period brings into view a new set of social forces by 
which it is characterized and distinguished from others; and the 
reason why periods often overlap is that the new set shows its influ- 
ence before the old has ceased to work. The real problems of the 
scientific organization of history show themselves in outline 
making. They must be ranked, for intellectual difficulty, far above 



History. 25 

those of explaining a single action or event by establishing a cer- 
tain consecution of facts. They require broad generalizing and 
fine discrimination. The high-school student may be prepared for 
the struggle with these problems that will come when he enters 
the university by judiciously directed exercises in the construction 
and criticism of outlines and summaries. An outline of the kind 
here meant is not simply a topical analysis of a text-book, but 
rather a setting forth in logical arrangement of the main phases of 
a process of historical evolution. 

The use of the outline should be enforced by constant reviews 
that will keep it before the student's mind. This is the only way 
to save him from being overwhelmed by details, and to give him a 
sense of real fruitfulness in his efforts. 

The teacher of history should also strive to vitalize his work. 
No student of the subject will ever develop genuine insight and full 
appreciation of the facts with which he has to deal until the past, 
as he studies it, takes on for him its old life. The more of its orig- 
inal concreteness and peculiar character he can restore, the better he 
will understand it. For this purpose he should avail himself, as far 
as possible, of whatever it has left to the world. Its dress, tools, 
and armor ; its official, ecclesiastical, and social paraphernalia ; spec- 
imens of its art; and above all its literature, wherein, more than in 
all else, appears the "very age and body of the time." Some of 
these materials, and especially extracts from the literature of spe- 
cial epochs, are available for work in the high school, and they 
should be used sufficiently to show the student their value and to 
stimulate his interest and historical imagination. Of course no 
large proportion of time can be given to their study until the 
university is reached, but much will be lost if they are neglected 
altogether. There are now published in convenient form several 
collections of extracts from the contemporaneous literature of the 
different periods of English and American history that might prof- 
itably be used for reference, or even as texts, in high schools. A 
few of the most available of these collections are as follows : 

American History. 

Hart, Source Boole of American History, for Schools and Read- 
ers. (The Macmillan Co., New York, 1899.) One volume; 60 
cents. Suitable for class use. 

Old South Leaflets (Old South Meeting House, Boston) ; 133 



26 Teaching in High Schools. 

or more numbers. Single leaflets, 5 cents; $4 per 100. Bound 
volumes (25 numbers), $1.50 per volume. 

American History Leaflets. (Lovell & Co., New York.) More 
than 30 numbers ; 10 cents a copy. 

English History. 

Kendall, Source Book of English History. (The Macmillan Co., 
New York, 1900.) One volume; 80 cents. 

Colby, F. M., Selections from the Sources of English History. 
(Longmans, Green & Co., New York), $1.50. 

General History. 

Munro, A Source Book of Roman History. (D. C. Heath & 
Co., Boston), $1. 

Eobinson, Readings in European History. (Ginn & Co., Bos- 
ton), $1.50. 

It is impossible to understand the history of a country without 
knowing its physiography and the development of its political geog- 
raphy. Civilization varies with the natural adaptabilities of the 
land, and almost every change of territorial limits is bound up 
with some crisis in national life. Therefore history necessarily 
presupposes a knowledge of physical geography, and includes dili- 
gent attention to historical. For this reason there should be con- 
stant reference to relief and epoch maps, and especially a free use of 
outline maps. It is not necessary, but is rather for historical pur- 
poses a waste of time, for the students to draw the outlines. Neither 
is it well for them to be trained merely to copy from a model be- 
fore the eyes. They may begin with that, but should not stop with 
it. What they should be taught to do is to fill in on an outline 
map, without a model, the main territorial subdivisions of the 
country studied at all the principal epochs of its history. 

There is a little book by Professor Emerton of Harvard, the 
Introduction to the Middle Ages, which contains some suggestions 
to teachers so excellent as to be worth quoting here. "Let all his- 
torical geography," says the author, "rest upon physical geography, 
and never fail to bring it back to that. The too common habit of 
bounding one country by others tends to make pupils forget the 
natural features of the earth's surface, and they must be constantly 
reminded of them. It would be well if they could be led always to 
describe the situation of peoples and places by reference to these 
natural features. This is of especial importance in a period in 
which the races are constantly changing their homes and forming 



History. 27 

new political boundaries. If the student has not the 'lay of the 
land' clearly in his mind, he will be in hopeless confusion. ' 

"The best way to keep these natural features permanently before 
the pupil, is to require him to draw maps. By using. . . .outline 
maps he will readily become accustomed to the fixedness of the sur- 
face lines and the variableness of the political boundaries. He will 
see how much or how little the latter depend on the former, and 
will soon come to have his own ideas about them. . . . Wher- 
ever an event is mentioned by which the map . . . was 
changed, let him draw that change for himself. At first he 
may be allowed to copy his lines from some other map, but he will 
soon learn to draw his own lines from oral description. The sense 
that he is making maps for himself will rouse his pride and in- 
crease his interest. 

"A mistaken zeal in the matter of dates has probably been the 
main cause of the disgust felt by most pupils who have been taught 
history by the old methods. The dates to be learned by heart 
should be learned carefully, and be continually referred to as the 
fixed points in the pupil's knowledge. He should repeat them and 
write them very often, and should be made to form his own chrono- 
logical tables by filling in between these fixed points such other 
dates and events as he is likely to remember, and no others. . . . 

"How much of the textbook ought to be committed to memory 
is one of the most difficult problems of elementary education. My 
own answer would be 'only that should be learned by heart which 
is fitted to become a permanent mental possession.' ... It 
is an error to suppose that committing a thing to memory makes it 
one's own. We really own only that which we have made our own 
by putting it through the machinery of our own minds. The 
memorizing of another's words can give us only the skeleton of his 
ideas. If we would really understand him, we must work over for 
ourselves what he has given us. So in learning history one must 
memorize only the skeleton of the story, and must clothe this with 
flesh and blood by means of his own powers of assimilation. The 
pupil should be required, not to learn the words of [the] book by 
heart, but to reproduce its contents orally or in writing, as the 
teacher may require. This caution, which is happily superfluous 
for many teachers, is unfortunately still necessary in too many 
cases. Let the memory be called upon for dates, facts of geography, 
whatever is worth being retained verbally in the mind, and where 
it is called upon, let the demand be strictly enforced. But let it 



28 Teaching in High Schools. 

never be forgotten that if the pupil once comes to think that study- 
ing history means memorizing isolated facts, he is lost forever to 
the cause of historical learning. 

"The pupil should be encouraged to read whatever bears upon the 
period [he is studying]. Poems, plays, novels, as well as more 
detailed histories, should be put in his way, and he should be helped 
to understand what he reads. He should be required to read pas- 
sages in larger historical works or articles in encyclopedias, and to 
report to the teacher in writing whatever adds to the narrative. 
. . . He will thus learn the greatest lesson of all historical 
study, that history is not 'all in the book,' but is to be learned from 
a variety of sources. The present increased interest in historical 
study is due mainly to the enforcement of this principle." 

It goes without saying that in history, as in any subject what- 
ever, students should be trained to accuracy. No slipshod work 
should be allowed. It is impossible, of course, for the average 
student to reproduce all the numerous and complex details of his- 
tory from memory, but he should not be allowed to become so care- 
less as not to correct himself constantly. The habit of inaccuracy 
should not be suffered to grow. One of the strongest evidences of 
inattention to this principle in the teaching of those students who 
enter the University is the frequent mispronunciation of proper 
names. If these names are Greek or. Latin, there are a few simple 
and easily applied rules that will prevent error in most cases, and 
these should be learned and used constantly in dealing with ancient 
history. As to other names, students should be referred to some 
authority for their correct pronunciation, which should be always 
insisted on. 

By way of conclusion, the attention of teachers is earnestly di- 
rected to three books devoted to the pedagogy of history. They are 
A History Syllabus for Secondary Schools (Heath, 1904), pre- 
pared by a special committee of the New England History Teach- 
ers' Association; Bourne (H. E.), The Teaching of History and 
Civics in the Elementary and Secondary Schools (G-inn, 1902) ; 
and Mace (W. H.), Method in History, for Teachers and Students 
(Ginn, 1898). These books contain valuable outlines of various 
portions of the field of history, discussions of methods of teaching 
the subject, and lists of reference works adapted to high school use. 

George P. Garrison, 
Professor of History. 



MATHEMATICS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

The teacher of arithmetic in the graded or high school should 
have in mind two principal aims, namely, to impart a comprehen- 
sion of the principles underlying the rules of computation and a 
high degree of accuracy in carrying out these computations on mod- 
erately large numbers. Although the accurate handling of com- 
plicated arrays of figures requires considerable practice — more 
than can be given and more than it is desirable to give in the ordi- 
nary school course — a systematic drill in oral and written work 
will, if judiciously employed, result in a high degree of accuracy 
in ordinary work. 

Neat and methodical arrangement of all written work should be 
insisted upon. Students should be required to check subtraction 
by adding subtrahend and remainder, short divisions by multiplying 
divisor and quotient. 

The teaching of Rational Arithmetic, i. e., the principles under- 
lying the rules of computation, requires careful handling. In fact, 
the demonstration of many of these rules should be deferred until a 
beginning is made in algebra. Thus the algorithm for finding the 
greatest common factor of two numbers or for extracting the 
square root is best deferred until algebra is begun. On the whole 
a review of rational arithmetic during the first year's algebra 
would greatly improve the student's knowledge of both subjects. 
The time devoted to -practical arithmetic is in many schools ex- 
cessive, and an earlier beginning in Algebra would be conducive to 
a better knowledge of the reasons underlying the rules of compu- 
tation and to a greater skill in actual numerical work. 

In the teaching of algebra as in all mathematical instruction, pro- 
cesses, i. e., an orderly deduction of theorems, and not memorizing 
should be the constant aim of the teacher. 

Factoring should be taught by abundant drill, solution of quad- 
ratics should always be by "completing the square," and not by a 
formula. The relations connecting the roots and coefficients should 
be proved and frequently employed. The strident should be drilled 
into an accurate practice in dealing with surds and rationalizing 
processes. Oral drills in simple algebraic reductions should be 
freely used. 



30 Teaching in High Schools. 

Geometry is perhaps the best and the worst taught of all the 
subjects in the high school. The principal defect in the teaching 
is that the structure of the various proofs is not carefully analyzed 
and explained. It should be pointed out to the student why a cer- 
tain group of theorems must necessarily he invoked in proving a 
given theorem, why the drawing of certain auxiliary lines and 
planes are useful in the proof, and why others can not be; the 
arrangement of the proof in separate steps each with its appro- 
priate citation and in due logical order should be insisted on. 
Figures should be accurately and neatly drawn. Drawing instru- 
ments suitable for the purposes can now be bought for a few cents. 
A set of carefully graded originals should be judiciously used, and 
in order that the less gifted pupils be not discouraged by tasks be- 
yond their powers, the more difficult ones should be assigned only 
to the best students. 

Before beginning the subject of strictly deductive geometry, an 
easy set of exercises in drawing, modeling, and paper folding, in 
which the student would become familiar with the figures about 
which he is to reason deductively at a later stage, would be most 
useful. The teaching of solid geometry is much easier and more 
effective if supplemented by the use of a few models, which any 
boy with the least mechanical turn can easily construct. 

The teacher that can bring his pupils to feel that they have a 
mastery of their geometry, a feeling of confidence in the integrity 
of their own mental processes, has succeeded as a teacher of geom- 
etry. 

In conclusion, a word may be said as to an important matter of 
detail : 

One of the most effective methods not only of inspiring but of 
sustaining the learner's interest in geometry is to require each 
pupil to keep a note-book in which are entered carefully drawn 
figures and accurately worded proofs of originals, and such other 
theorems as may be deemed desirable. Such books should he in- 
spected by the teacher, and be graded both for neatness and accu- 
racy. 

M. B. Porter, 
Professor of Mathematics. 



LATIN IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

The preparatory course now required for entrance to The Uni- 
versity of Texas embraces : 

1. Grammar, with special stress upon inflections and the syn- 
tax of the simple sentence. 

2. Prose composition : the translation of elementary English 
prose into Latin. 

3. Translation: 

a. Viri Romae, or other introductory Latin; 

b. Caesar, three books; 

c. Cicero, Manilian Law and two other orations; 

d. Vergil, Aeneid, book I. 

4. Scansion, the dactylic hexameter in connection with the 
Aeneid. 

I would venture to address a few words to my Latin colleagues 
in the Public High Schools, which, with the branches at Galveston 
and Austin, constitute "The Greater University of Texas," as to 
how we may best turn these requirements to the advantage of our 
students. It is very important for us all to work together, 
and especially in Latin, for the University classes pick up in 
the middle, precisely where the high schools leave off, and unless 
the foundation is well laid by the school, there is no chance of 
getting a good superstructure built upon it. Our fourth year's 
work here — the Freshman class — depends on each of the previous- 
high-school years, and each is of very great importance. 

1. Forms and Pronunciation: Nothing is so important at first 
as the mastery of the forms. In the first year the student should 
learn, not only to recite, but also to write his forms, always mark- 
ing the quantities and the accents, and dividing the syllables. He 
should be cautioned that when text-books write homin-is and amav- 
ero, it is to teach the stem formation, while ho-mi-nis, a-ma-ve-ro 
represent the only correct syllable division. It will not be useless 
even to indicate "length-by-position" by drawing a line under the 
two consonants that give position, as in the following words : 
a-spec-tus, de~-speotus, a-gri or a-gri (genitive to a-ger), but only 
a-cris (genitive to a-cer.) In this connection it is important to 
learn the classification of the consonants into mutes and liquids, 



32 Teaching in High Schools. 

sonants, surds, (mediae, tenues,) and aspirates, and the subdivi- 
sions of the mutes into labials, dentals and palatals. The correct 
placing of the accent is to be insisted on : a student might be par- 
doned for not knowing the quantity of the syllable na- in na-tu-ra, 
but is is inexcusable not to know that -tu-, the accented penult, is 
long, or that -ra is short, if a nominative, but long, if an ablative; 
it is inexcusable to pronounce eadem (nom. sg. fern, and nom. plur. 
neut.) like eadem (abl. sg. fern.). 

The time to learn the pronunciation of Latin is when the pupil is 
learning his forms. Every beginners' book in Latin known to me marks 
every long vowel by a line placed immediately above the vowel. Un- 
marked vowels are short, and unmarked diphthongs (se, ce, au, ui are the 
only diphthongs commonly met with) are always long. It is essential to 
teach the quantity because the accent of every Latin word depends on 
the length of the syllables. Pupils repeatedly come from the high schools, 
even from affiliated high schools, who do not know what syllable of a 
Latin word to accent, or what is meant by "long-by-position" and "long- 
by-nature," though all these points are set down correctly in even the 
most elementary books for beginners. 

Here I suggest a means of lessening one difficulty. It is perhaps true, 
as the books say, that the quality of the long vowels and the short vowels 
is the same, but it results in students pronouncing Latin et like English 
"ate," as they pronounce Latin non to rhyme with English "don," and 
not, as they ought, to rhyme with English "lone." In practice, then, I 
would ask our teachers to use the following scheme, in which a difference 
in quality is sometimes invoked to make clear the difference in quantity. 

Pronounce Latin short a like a in (English) "Cuba;" long a as in "far." 

Pronounce Latin short e like e in (English) "met;" long e as in "fete." 

Pronounce Latin short i like i in (English) "pin;" long i as in "ma- 
chine." 

Pronounce Latin short o like o in (English) "not;" long o as in "note." 

Pronounce Latin short u like oo in (English) "foot;" long u like oo 
in "boot." 

Pronounce Latin ae like English ai in "aisle." 

Pronounce Latin au like English ou in "house." 

Pronounce Latin oe like English oi in "boil." 

Pronounce Latin ui like English we in "we." 

For practical purposes Latin y equals Latin i; and qu is a single con- 
sonant. 

It is of the very greatest importance for the pupil to learn the 
quantity of all the endings that show the case, the mood and tense, 
person and number of Latin words: this constitutes, — nothing 
short of this does constitute, — a knowledge of the forms. 

In brief: The student should acquire once for all from his in- 
troductory book a lasting knowledge of all the forms he has met, 
and in his subsequent reading and grammar work this knowledge of 



Latin. 33 

the forms must always be kept alive. Similarly a correct pronuncia- 
tion once acquired must never become slovenly. This will demand 
much reading aloud on the part of both student and teacher, and I 
suggest that every reading lesson be reviewed as follows: the 
teacher to read aloud the review intelligibly, phrase by phrase, and 
the pupil to render this by ear, not having his text open before him. 
To secure exact results in all form-work, the teacher will need 
to make much use of the blackboard, and correct many written 
tasks. Barber's Latin Charts (Scott, Foresman & Co., price about 
$8.00) might prove of great service in the teaching of forms and 
quantity if school boards would provide them. 

2. Syntax : The study of syntax in any good elementary book 
is introduced piece-meal, one or two principles at a time. I would 
recommend in this connection diagramming after a simple system 
which would arrange the subject and its modifiers in one column, 
the object and its modifiers in another, and the predicate and its 
modifiers between : of course there would be no object column if 
the leading verb were intransitive, and with copulative verbs the 
adjective or other predicate might be put in the third column. 
The preparatory Latin course ought to teach the student almost all 
the case syntax, barring certain subtleties, he will ever need to 
know. 

In the reading of the second and third years the pupil will meet 
with most sorts of dependent clauses in Latin. He ought to be 
specially taught from his grammar to distinguish between adject- 
ive, substantive, and adverbial clauses, and, under the latter, 
between final, consecutive, causal, concessive, temporal and condi- 
tional varieties, in their larger outlines. By properly grouping 
these clauses the number of general principles is not great. Thus 
the student will see the general framework, not only of Latin, but 
of languages in general. It is better to learn first that a leading 
verb is modified temporally, causally or concessively by a cum- 
clause than to learn the details of the moods used after cum. In 
diagramming, this c?zm-clause should be set down in the column 
devoted to the predicate, though it might, within that column, be 
itself arranged diagrammatically. 

3. Prose Composition: Writing Latin is the very best means 
to learn the language: "writing maketh an exact man." Writing 
should be started almost from the beginning, first as a means of 
teaching forms, quantity, and accent, and then for the sake of 
syntax. By the second year writing should have at least one 



34 Teaching in High Schools. 

weekly period devoted to it exclusively, and I would recommend 
about two short sentences to go with each reading lesson as well. 

If the teacher prefers the method of exercises based on the texts 
he is actually reading in his class, the books of Moulton (Ginn & 
Co.), Daniell (Sanborne), and Dodge and Tuttle (Am. Book Co.) 
follow this plan, but attempt as well to cover the syntax system- 
atically. For the detached sentence plan, which concentrates the 
attention on a few principles at a time, and which the Latin in- 
structors in The University of Texas, on the whole, prefer, Jones's 
(Scott, Foresman & Co.), Bennett's (Allyn & Bacon), and Gilder- 
sleeve's (University Publ. Co.) books may be mentioned. The 
English books of Bamsay (The Macmillan Co.) and Bitchie 
(Longmans, Green & Co.) are also of great merit. In all exer- 
cise work the syllable quantities should always be marked. 

Enthusiasm, even, for Latin composition might be roused, if 
the pupil were made to see that he is also getting excellent in- 
struction in English composition from the careful analysis that 
must necessarily precede the translation of English sentences into 
Latin. 

4. Translation : The present requirements, measured by the 
pages of the standard texts, cover about 90 (a), 70 (b), 50 (c), 
and 20 (d) pages. Of these amounts (a) and more than half of 
(b) should be completed by the end of the second year in high- 
school Latin, leaving the remainder of (b), (c), and (d) for the 
third year. 

As to teaching translation, students ought to learn how to trans- 
late in written as well as in oral versions. Frequent exercises to 
acquire this power should be assigned. I would suggest that at 
least once a month in the second and third years a passage of ten 
lines or such a matter be assigned for written translation. This 
might be rendered with bald literalness in one version, while in a 
parallel column genuine English might be called for. No better 
practice in English composition can be given than this, and by this 
means the enthusiastic Latin teacher might remove the reproach 
that the classics are not practically useful, when, in fact, if we take 
them diligently, they help to a very superior control of the mother 
tongue. The student has acquired some control not only of his 
powers of expression but of his thinking powers as well when he 
learns to render Manlius Galium caesum torque spoliavit, not by 
(1) "Manlius spoiled the slain Gaul of his necklet/' but by (2) 
"Manlius slew the Gaul and tore his necklet off." So Manlius 



Latin. 35 

Gallo caeso torquem detraxit should finally be rendered "M. slew 
the Gaul and took his necklet off." Similarly the student must not 
render Manlius, stricto gladio, in Galium invadit by (1) "M. his 
sword having been drawn advanced upon the Gaul," but by (2) 
"M. having drawn his sword advanced etc.," or by (3) "M. with 
drawn sword etc." So, in idiomatic English, forte aderat Caesar is 
not (1) "Caesar was present by chance" but (2) "Caesar happened 
to be there." 

Whether or not the student must needs pass through bald trans- 
lations like those marked (1) before reaching the more idiomatic 
ones marked (2) is too large a question to discuss here; but no 
Latin teacher with a conscience sensitive to the duty and privilege 
of teaching English through Latin will ever let his pupils stop 
short of the ideals of translation presented in the versions marked 
(2). 

We do not insist on just those authors mentioned in the require- 
ments. The "Junior" (Allyn & Bacon) and "Second Year" 
(Gihn & Co.) Latin books recently, issued contain good substi- 
tutes for (a), and so does First Latin Readings (Am. Book Co.). 
No substitute should be less in quantity than the requirements, 
however, and there should be no substitute for Cicero's Pro lege 
Manilia, also called De Imperio Cn. Pompeii. 

5. Scansion : In connection with the translation of the 
Aeneid, pupils should be taught the scansion of the dactylic hexa- 
meter. Teachers would do well before trying to scan the Aeneid, 
to read aloud Ivingsley's poem of Andromeda, which will show in 
English the cadence of the hexameter. By the use of Gleason's 
Gate to Vergil (Ginn & Co.) the work in scansion would be 
greatly facilitated. 

I would now note a few of the shortcomings I have observed 
during my experience as an examiner of students in the last few 
years. They almost never know the constructions of intransitives ; 
thus they will write incorrectly persuadeor and not mihi persua- 
deiur for the passive "I am persuaded;" and unconcernedly make 
the third person form of the verb do duty for the first or second, 
particularly in relative clauses. They are as apt to write Appolo as 
Apollo; aedes Apollinaris is "The Apollinaric house," or some 
such thing, not "The temple of Apollo;" helium Sei'torianum is 
not "the war with Sertorius," but always "the Sertorian war" : — 
these examples to caution teachers to set their faces earnestly 



36 Teaching in High Schools. 

against the young student's carelessness about proper names and 
adjectives. Such spellings as genative and accusative exhibit the 
same carelessness. Why after two months' close association with 
Catilina will students spell Cataline? Students are slovenly, too, 
in not distinguishing between such words as orior and ordior, 
quaero and queror, moror and morior, pario and paro and pareo. 
Latin does not lack in words like these which demand of the stu- 
dent the most careful attention. 

The high-school teacher and the college teacher as well must 
guard against making Latin courses all one grind at grammar. 
The pupil's attention may be called to many subsidiary subjects. 
Stories from Eoman history and mythological stories might well 
be introduced early into the course, perhaps as subsidiary reading 
before the pupils reach the high school. Even such books as Quo 
Vadis, The Last Days of Pompeii, and Farrar's Darkness and 
Dawn might be put in the pupil's hands ; these would almost cer- 
tainly interest him, and would incidentally convey a good deal of 
information about Eoman modes of life and thought. I especially 
recommend that each student read, or better, have his teacher read 
to him, Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. 

A great many high-school pupils do not come to college. For 
the benefit of these particularly I recommend along with the class 
work in each author the books on Caesar, Cicero, and Vergil in the 
series of Ancient Classics for English Beaders (Lippincott), and 
the student would not be hurt by having read to him Conington's 
verse-translation of the Aeneid. 

Every high-school course should make provision for work in 
Classical Geography and Antiquities. This work need not be 
formal, but incidental to the reading work, and co-ordinated with 
the work in general history. A cheap Classical Atlas- is published by 
Sanborn (Boston), and one copy for reference should be in every 
school library. Eeferences might also be made to books like John- 
ston's (Scott, Foresman & Co.) or Preston and Dodge's Private 
Life of the Romans (Sanborn, cheaper edition in paper), to let pu- 
pils see for themselves what the daily life of Eoman men and women 
was like. 

I wish it were practicable for all of our Texas high schools to 
make their plans to acquire by degrees a small working collection 
of books on the classics. A good first book of reference to purchase 
would be Seyffert's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, $3.00 (Mac- 
millan). A copy of Harper's Latin Dictionary, $6.50, ought also 



Latin. 37 

to be available, and the student should be shown how to use it. 
Occasional exercises in synopsizing the definition of an important 
word would teach the student how to use dictionaries in general, 
and it would certainly be profitable for one to study out the deriva- 
tion of the secondary and figurative meanings from the primitive. 
Further books to recommend for a school collection are Gow's 
Companion to School Classics (Macmillan), Gayley's Classic 
Myths (Ginn & Co.), Mackail's Latin Literature (Scribner's), and 
such a book as Guhl and Kroner's Private Life of the Creeks and 
Romans. Schreiber's Atlas of Classical Antiquities (Macmillan) 
is an excellent book to convey instruction by means of pictures 
and diagrams. 

For some years past I have secured from each student entering 
our Freshman class a statement of the work he had accomplished 
in his preparatory course; and I trust I shall be understood as 
having at heart only the best interest of "The Greater University 
of Texas" when I state that of these matriculates many report no 
work at all in Latin writing, and many fall a good deal short of 
the requirements in translation from the Latin, while very few 
have enjoyed any careful and accurate instruction in scanning. 
Measures must be taken to call in question the affiliation of all 
schools that fall short of the prescribed course. Affiliation in any 
subject imposes an obligation to perform all the work required for 
entrance in that subject. 

This is the place to say to the Latin teachers of Texas that the 
Latin requirements at our State University are predicated on a 
diligent but not very exacting three years' preparatory course; and 
that this standard is a full year in time (more than a year in 
amount of ground covered) lower than the the standard of admis- 
sion actually enforced in some other good state universities. We 
ought gradually to raise our standard, not because the University 
shall require it, but because our high schools shall demand it. 
When our high schools shall say that Texas must have high schools 
that go as far as the high schools of Michigan and Illinois, then 
the University can set a higher standard of admission in Latin 
(and Mathematics). Progress has already been made, for many 
of our schools are giving four-year courses in Latin that gave but 
three-year courses five years ago, and some of these four-year 
courses are doing more work than we require for admission, nota- 
bly the Ball High School of Galveston. I trust the number of 
these will so increase that it will be practicable henceforth to main- 



38 Teaching in High Schools. 

tain an advanced section in Freshman Latin, open only to the 
best prepared students. In such a section more inspiring methods 
of work could be adopted and much more ground covered. 

May the time soon come when all the high schools of Texas will 
claim the right to give as much Latin in their courses as the Ball 
High School now gives, and so conform to the standard of the 
larger part of our country. 

In order that our teachers may have before them in convenient 
form a description of what we may call the "ideal 1 standard" 
I quote from the National Educational Association's "Report of 
Committee on College Entrance Requirements," the course of study 
recommended by the American Philological Association, and 
adopted by the general committee as above mentioned. 

Proposed four year Latin Course. {Five periods weekly throughout the 
four years.) : 

First Tear. 

Latin lessons, accompanied from an early stage by the reading of simple 
selections. Easy reading: twenty to thirty pages of a consecutive text. 

In all written exercises the long vowels should be marked, and in all 
oral exercises pains should be taken to make the pronunciation conform 
to the quantities. 

The student should be trained from the beginning to grasp the meaning 
of the Latin before translating, and then to render into idiomatic Eng- 
lish ; and should be taught to read the Latin aloud with intelligent ex- 
pression. 

Second Year. 

Selections from Caesar's Gallic War equivalent in amount to four or 
five books ; selections from other prose writers, such as Nepos, may be 
taken as a substitute for one, or at most, two books. 

The equivalent of at least one period a week in prose composition based 
on Caesar. 

Reading aloud and translating, together with training in correct meth- 
ods of apprehending the author's meaning, both prepared and unprepared 
passages being used as material. The memorizing of selected passages. 



1 To avoid the mistake occasioned by the original paper on Latin teach- 
ing in "Bulletin No. 1" I expressly note that the requirements for admis- 
sion to the University of Texas are set down at the beginning of this 
paper. The course that follows, printed in a smaller type, is the course 
that we may hope to see established in the Texas high schools in ten, 
fifteen, or twenty years, as circumstances, under the guidance of our 
active school men, may make expedient. 



Latin. 39 

Third and Fourth Years. 

Sallust's Catiline (or Selections). 

Cicero: six to nine orations (including the De Imperio On. Pompeii). 
Ovid: 500 to 1500 verses. 
Vergil's Aeneid: six to nine books. 

The equivalent of at least one period a week in prose composition based 
on Cicero. 

The reading of Latin aloud. The memorizing of selected passages. 

The teacher who will candidly compare this proposed course 
with the requirements now enforced at The University of Texas 
will be bound to admit (1) that The University of Texas does not 
ask any excessive preparation in Latin; and (2) that few of our 
schools cover in three (or four) years anything like as much 
ground as the "ideal course" lays down for that length of time. 

The study of Latin, acknowledged to be highly effective as a 
mental discipline, and contributory at every step to an improved 
knowledge of English, depends for its value on the efficiency of 
the instruction given. One cannot teach Latin without knowing 
it, and unless one has enjoyed at least three years of Latin in a 
good high school and two years more of advanced work under com- 
petent teachers, preferably in a college, one may seriously ques- 
tion whether he "has a call" to teach Latin On the other hand, 
experienced teachers, "apt to teach," who have enjoyed fewer ad- 
vantages of special Latin training, would find themselves greatly 
benefited by taking two or more courses in the summer schools of 
The University of Texas. 

The classical teachers of The University will esteem it a priv- 
ilege to be of service at any and all times to the Latin teachers in 
the high schools. 

Edwin W. Fay, 

Professor of Latin. 



ADDENDUM. 

Attention is called to the course given in the Houston High 
School (1900-1901). The first three years of this course, it will be 
observed, cover all the ground required for entrance to the Fresh- 
man class. It will be necessary in many schools to devote four 
years to this three-year course. In this case provision might be 
made by putting the first year in Latin in the last year of the 
grammar school. 

Four years, five times a week, forty-five minutes each period. 

Course 1. 

(1) First Latin Book, Collar and Daniell. 

(2) Easy Stories — Via Latina. 

(3) Sentence work every day. 

(4) Constant drill on quantity, forms, and easy principles of 

syntax. 

Course 2. 

(1) Caesar: Gallic War (Books I-IV), book I studied inten- 

sively for forms and principles of syntax. Grammar ref- 
erences required. 

(2) Prose Composition, based on text, — once a week (Moulton 

and Collar's Preparatory Latin Composition). 

(3) Drill on changes made in Oratio Obliqua. 

Course 3. 

(1) Cicero: In Catilinam (I-IV). 

(2) Drill on phrasing. Drill on forms. Drill on principles of 

syntax. 

(3) Prose Composition, based on text (Moulton and Collar). 

Sentences given after each oration is finished. 

(4) Vergil: Aeneid (Book 1). Scansion: principles and prac- 

tice. 

Course 4. 

(1) Vergil: Aeneid (Books II-VI). The hexameter empha- 
sized. 



Addendum. 41 

(2) Prose Composition: Exercises arranged by the instructor to 

cover basic principles of syntax. College sight tests often 
used. 

(3) Cicero : Pro Archia. Eead last to impress the students with 

good prose form. Translations often written. 

(4) Prose Composition based on text (Moulton and Collar). 

Notes on this Course. 

Instead of four books of Caesar the teacher may give the four 
"Roman" Lives of Nepos (Harnilcar, Hannibal, Cato, Atticus, — 
about 28 pages) and two books of Caesar (about 50 pages), or any 
80 pages of Caesar or other historical prose of equal difficulty. The 
University now asks for three books of Caesar, or an equivalent in 
other authors. 

In place of the four Catilines of Cicero, teachers are requested, 
because of its simplicity and non-technical nature, always to give 
the Manilian Law (24 pages), and enough more of Cicero to make 
50 pages in all. 

In place of the 1st book of Vergil's Aeneid, teachers might give 
an equal amount (756 lines) of Ovid, — by all means teaching the 
hexameter. 

The above course is not to be construed into a recommendation 
of any particular text-books. In general, teachers should use the 
books they know how to use best. The teachers who can make good 
use of Gildersleeve-Lodge's Latin Grammar, "School Edition," will 
be introducing their pupils to the grammar in use at the University. 

N. B. — Longmans, Green & Co. have issued a book on The 
Teaching of Latin and Greek, by Professors Bennett and Bristol of 
Cornell. This furnishes teachers of the classics in our high schools 
with a valuable pedagogic help. The Eeport of the Committee of 
Twelve issued by the American Philological Association contains 
hints of value for this purpose. It can be procured from Ginn & 
Co., Dallas, for 10 cents. 

E. W. F. 



GKEEK IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

Success in an undertaking is usually in proportion to the pains 
with which its object is kept in view. In the study of Greek, 
though incidentally we gain a great deal more, and ultimately we 
aim at a knowledge of Greek civilization, our primary aim is the 
ability to read Greek. According as one can read Greek with un- 
derstanding and appreciation he is a Greek scholar. In the dis- 
covery of the means best adapted to secure this end lies the secret 
of teaching Greek. 

To understand an inflected language a knowledge of three things 
is needful, — forms, syntax, the meaning of words. Without know- 
ing forms, it is impossible to tell the relations of words; without 
knowing syntax we cannot determine the structure of sentences; 
without knowing the meaning of words, we are manifestly helpless. 
To try to learn the three separately is fatal. From the start they 
should continually reinforce and supplement one another. 

The acquisition of forms can be lightened by proper analysis 
and intelligent comparison with Latin, but, after all, it is largely 
a matter of memory. Constant drilling and frequent reviews are 
indispensable. 

In syntax it is harmful to puzzle the student over queer or un- 
common uses, either in the text read or in the grammar, but by 
every means at command, by question and explanation, by special 
grammar references and by systematic grammar study, by com- 
parison with other languages, and, above all, by the writing of 
Greek sentences, the teacher must fix ineradicably the general prin- 
ciples that govern the construction of Greek sentences. Syntax is 
not studied for itself, though it affords an unrivaled mental drill, 
but because without it no real progress is possible in securing the 
power to read. 

With most students of Greek, its vocabulary is a greater diffi- 
culty than forms or syntax. Nevertheless, rational methods greatly 
lighten the task. Association with cognates and derivatives in 
other languages, especially English, is one. Memorizing outright a 
small number of words every day and never losing them is another. 
If told that a word occurs, say, sixteen times in the Anabasis, most 



Greek. 43 

students will think it a saving of labor to learn the word and be 
done with it. In this connection the word lists in Harper and 
Wallace's Anabasis are of much value. 

Another plan, productive of excellent results, is the grouping 
together of words of the same origin and tracing their connection 
in meaning. Admirable examples of such groups are contained in 
the vocabulary to Goodwin and White's Anabasis. Prefaced by 
lessons on the formation of words and explained by a skillful 
teacher, they are as interesting as profitable. 

Better than all such means as these is the habit of self-depend- 
ence. Most of the words in a sentence the student can recognize 
at once. By an effort he can recall others. As to the uncommon 
words, by observation of their relation to the rest of the sentence 
as shown by their form, by examination of their formation, by use 
of the imagination, it is possible in most cases to arrive at what they 
must inevitably mean. To confirm such a judgment and fix the 
word in the mind, it is necessary to use the lexicon, and use it care- 
fully. To turn to the lexicon without earnest effort at self-reliance 
is excellent finger exercise, but it is deadly to the mind. 

Serviceable alike for forms and syntax and words is composition 
in Greek. As a drill in all these, nothing can take its place and 
there is no surer test of real scholarship. It is not an end in 
itself, but it necessitates a command as well of details as of general 
principles that is of inestimable help when applied to the reading 
of a Greek author. For the first year, Greek sentences should be 
written daily. During the second, at least one period a week 
should be devoted to composition. To write in the spirit of the 
Greek, and anything else is surely superfluous, it is necessary at 
first to imitate some good model. This model it is best perhaps to 
find in the text being read. 

Hardly inferior to writing Greek as a means of learning the 
structure of sentences and in the cultivation of a feeling; for 
style is the reading of Greek aloud. It is a great help, too, in 
forms and pronunciation, teaching by ear as well as by eye. For 
the first two years, it is well always to read the day's passage aloud, 
either before or after the translation, but never without expression. 
We do not, or should not, read English as if it were meaningless. 
Why then read Greek sentences like lists of words in a vocabulary? 
Beading in concert is useful, the teacher with proper emphasis 
reading a clause first, the class then reading in unison after him, 



44 Teaching in High Schools. 

slowly and distinctly, every member making himself heard. A 
class once accustomed to this can read together without trouble, 
the teacher leading with a strong voice, but not giving out the pas- 
sage clause by clause as before. In poetry, of course, this is easier 
than in prose, and even more profitable. There is no surer way to 
learn the measured flow of the verse or to gain a correct idea of 
time. Still, reading in concert does not permit of the finer ex- 
pression of meaning demanded in individual reading. To this it 
but paves the way. 

If such a thing were possible, it might be well to dispense with 
translation entirely. Unfortunately, teachers, being seldom mind- 
readers, are forced to ask their pupils to translate in order to find 
out whether they understand what they read. Yet translation is 
profitable for other reasons also. It is a capital drill in clearness 
and elegance of expression in English. That is, if it be really 
translation. Perfect translation is rendering the thought of one 
language into another, without loss, without addition, in a style 
reproducing the characteristics of the original. This requires in 
the translator a genius akin to that of his author. He must have 
perfect knowledge of the other's language and perfect facility in 
his own. We may not succeed in becoming expert translators, but 
it is worth while to try. From the first day to the last, the good 
teacher will never tolerate bad English. His own renderings being 
irreproachable, he will insist upon idiomatic, if possible elegant, 
English from his students. Literal translation can not be either. 
It results in that horrible translation lingo that is justly the great 
reproach of classical teaching. Of course a passage must be under- 
stood before it can be translated. This once secured, it makes 
little or no difference how "free'' the rendering is. If it gives all 
the thought of the original and no more, in an appropriate English 
style, it is a good translation. 

Let the work begin with an introductory book that is not too 
minute, White's First Greek Boole, or Ball's Elements of Greek, for 
instance. Each lesson should be mastered. From the beginning, 
accuracy is essential. Errors uncorrected produce slip-shod habits. 
The teacher himself will be scrupulously accurate always. 

In the sounds of the letters, it is best to follow the rules as 
given in White or Ball. They embody the best American usage. 
Let the words be pronounced always with the principal stress on 
the accented syllable. This is not what accent meant to the Greeks, 
but it is the best we can do. 



Greek. 45 

It is pleasant to vary the work of the introductory book with 
the reading of a collection of easy stories like Moss's Greek Reader. 
Short, attractive stories, such as these, stimulate the student to 
read them for their own sake. 

After the introductory book and the easy reader come the Anaba- 
sis, grammar and composition book. Goodwin and White's Anaba- 
sis is perhaps the most satisfactory, though Kelsey and Zenos, and 
Harper and Wallace are preferred by many. Between the two 
popular grammars, Goodwin and Hadley-Allen, there is little to 
choose. Goodwin's is the more recent. For composition, there is 
no really satisfactory manual. Choice had best, perhaps, be made 
between Woodruff, Collar and Daniell, Harper and Castle, and 
Pearson. They are all constructed on the imitation theory, the 
exercises being based on passages from Xenophon, chiefly the 
Anabasis. 

In a good school, the first year's work of five forty-five minute 
periods a week will include the introductory book and the whole 
of a book of stories like Moss's; or, if the stories be not read, the 
first book of the Anabasis, except the ninth chapter. The second 
year, also of five three-quarter hour periods a week, is long enough 
for the first four books of the Anabasis, besides composition. If 
only three books can be read, let them be the first, third and fourth. 
The fourth is much more interesting than the second. Homer it 
is better to postpone to the third year, if the curriculum include 
one; or to the University. Nobody has a right to begin Homer 
without a thorough grounding in Attic prose. 

In the work of the first years in Greek the learning of new forms 
is tiresome, and the strange vocabulary is an ever-present stum- 
bling block. It is the teacher's part to smooth the way. Let 
things never drag. "Snap," combined with unfailing patience and 
sympathy, goes a long way to make the student enjoy his class 
hours, and carry the interest to his study. 

Then, too, sidelights from history, mythology, art, public and 
private antiquities, will carry a class over many a hard place, and 
may kindle an enthusiasm utterly unexpected. After all, the ideal 
of classical scholarship is a knowledge of classical civilization, and 
though language and literature are now our chief concern, they 
are not all we have to guide us. 

Moreover, there should be pictures illustrative of classical art 
and scenery, the more the better. They are cheap now and wonder- 



46 Teaching in High Schools. 

fully good. Let there be a plaster cast or two — the Venus of Milo 
and the Hermes of Praxiteles, first of all. The unconscious influ- 
ence of such things is strong not only in rousing an interest in 
things Greek, but in creating a refined taste in general. Next to 
wall pictures and casts, lantern slides give best results. A good 
lantern can be had for $25, and excellent slides for forty cents 
apiece. If the teacher be a clever workman, he can make them 
himself for much less. 

Better even than sidelights from the teacher is what the student 
finds out for himself. Let him have access to the proper books and 
be taught how to consult them. Every school should have at least 
the nucleus of a classical library. Among the books first bought 
should be a history of Greece (Botsford : The Macmillan Co., 
$1.25; or Oman: Longmans, Green & Co., $1.20; or Myers: Ginn 
& Co., $1.25), a classical dictionary (Smith, revised by Marindin: 
D. Appleton & Co., $5.00), a dictionary of antiquities (the new 
Smith, revised and shortened by Cornish : H. Holt & Co., $4.00, 
or Seyffert: The Macmillan Co., $3.00), a classical atlas (Kiepert: 
Band, McNally & Co., $3.00; or Murray's, Oxford University 
Press, $1.50), a manual of Mythology (Gayley: Ginn & Co., $1.50, 
or Bulfinch : H. Altemus, $1.25 ; or Murray : C. Scribner's Sons, 
$1.25) ; a history of Greek Art (Tarbell : The Macmillan Co., $1.25 ; 
or Collignon's Manual of Archaeology; Cassell & Co.. $2.00), a 
history of Greek Literature (Jevons: C. Scribner's Sons, $2.50, or 
Fowler: D. Appleton & Co., $1.40, or Mahafly: The Macmillan 
Co., $4.00). Besides these there should be Schreiber's Atlas of 
Classical Antiquities, translated by Anderson (The Macmillan Co., 
$8.00), Gardner and Jevons' Manual of Greek Antiquities (C. 
Scribner's Sons, $4.00), Gulick's Life of the Ancient Greeks (D. 
Appleton & Co., $1.40), Goodwin's Greek Moods and Tenses (Ginn 
& Co., $2.00), and Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon (The 
American Book Co., $10.00). 

In all his work the teacher will remember that his primary 
object is to teach the student to read Greek. Everything else is 
subsidiary to this. The true teacher will know what is essential 
and what is not; what must be stressed and what passed lightly 
over; yet he will not forget that "Haste makes waste," and that 
the fruit of carelessness is muddy thinking. 

W. J. Battle, 
Professor of Greek. 



MODERN LANGUAGES IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

The true value of all linguistic and literary study is primarily 
the disciplinary value which is inherent in all language study when 
properly taught. A secondary value is the knowledge gained of 
the life and literature of the country in which the language is 
spoken and their influence upon civilization, the preparation for 
intellectual pursuits that require the ability to read these lan- 
guages for information, and lastly the practical knowledge of the 
language which will be useful in business and travel. The second- 
ary advantages are probably fully as important, if not more so, 
than the general discipline derived from study. 

In the hands of competent teachers the disciplinary training 
received in the study of modern language can and ought to be 
equal to that obtained from the study of any language. For 
though the forms of the French, Spanish, or German language may 
be more easily acquired than those of the Greek or the Latin, yet 
the reasoning powers of the scholar can and ought to be as thor- 
oughly developed by an exact and comparative study of idiomatic 
expressions and peculiar constructions which show the different 
lines of thought along which the various nations approach the 
same fundamental idea. Difficulty is not a test of discipline, for 
the latter is the result only of careful and correct teaching. 

The study of a living language has a reflex action upon one's 
own language, for it gradually leads one to a careful observation 
of the similarities and dissimilarities existing between the two lan- 
guages, enlarges his vocabulary, and opens up new modes of thought 
for his contemplation. The trend of modern life is too varied and 
cosmopolitan to be limited to one language. For the paramount 
interests of mankind are too important to be centered in one na- 
tion. The living issues of the day are universal and he who would 
keep abreast of the times must be thoroughly versed in the world's 
best literature. Therefore a knowledge of the languages of those 
nations which are the leaders of modern thought is the only safe 
introduction to their life and literature. For modern intellectual 



48 Teaching in High Schools. 

and social activity find their expression in the poetry and prose, 
science and theology produced by each age the world over. The 
ability to read and speak a foreign language necessarily broadens 
one's field of usefulness, adds to his own ideas those of other na- 
tions, and opens up to him new and unexplored avenues of pleas- 
ure. For "in nearly all branches of knowledge at the present time 
a large part of the best that has been written is to be found in the 
German and French languages." 

These advantages call for a liberal provision for the study of the 
modern languages in the preparatory schools. They should be 
given a fair chance to show their worth in the educational system 
of the State, which, when they are properly taught, is not less than 
that of the ancient languages, as is admitted in the words of Presi- 
dent Eliot, Educational Reform, p. 378 : "It seems to me that the 
teaching of modern languages in many of the schools * * * 
has now reached such a stage that we may fairly say that a training 
in French or German, or both, can be given which is just as sub- 
stantial, strong, and useful a training as any other that is given 
in the same period." 

The following suggestions are offered as indicating the kind of 
preparation required for admission to the University. 

The pronunciation is a. matter of primary importance for the 
beginner. Constant drill should be kept up until right habits are 
firmly fixed. It will be necessary to train both the ear and the 
vocal organs of the learner; oft-repeated imitations of a good pro- 
nunciation are the only sure means of acquiring an approximately 
accurate pronunciation. The teacher should never grow weary of 
correcting faults, even though perfection does not follow. A knowl- 
edge of phonetics is an invaluable aid to the teacher in correcting 
faulty pronunciation, for it enables him to see the difficulty of the 
pupil and to help him to overcome it. 

The next important step after the acquisition of a good pronun- 
ciation is the ability to use properly the idioms of a language. A 
thorough drill in the idioms acquired by the memorizing and fre- 
quent repetition of colloquial sentences is therefore urgently recom- 
mended. The best drill will be in short dialogues in the language 
taught, which the teacher can easily improvise by noting down 
suitable sentences from the reading. These sentences should be 
written in improvised exercises, as well as repeated orally. 



French. 49 

In dealing with grammatical forms the teacher must dwell upon 
them until they become secondary nature. It will require con- 
stant repetition, but the time spent will tell throughout the whole 
course and will be a gain to both teacher and pupil. Let the 
teacher concentrate upon those words that belong to the language 
of every day life and make sure of these. The rest will come of 
themselves. 

Useful hints on teaching French and German will be found in 
the following works : 

Eeport, of the Committee of Twelve of the Modern Language 
Association of America (published by the Bureau of Education) ; 
Methods of Teaching Modern Languages (D. C. Heath & Co.) ; A 
Practical Study of Language, by Henry Sweet (Henry Hclt & 
Co.). 

FRENCH. 

I. First and second years : Fraser and Squair's French Gram- 
mar, Joynes's Fairy Tales* (Heath) ; Merimee's Colomba (Holt) ; 
France's Abeille (Heath) ; DeVigny's Cachet Rouge. (Heath) ; 
Daudet's Le Petit Chose (Heath). 

II. Third and fourth years: Fraser and Squair's French 
Grammar; Maupassant's Huit Contes Choisis (Heath) ; Augier^s 
La Pierre de Touche (Ginn) ; Labiche et Martin's Moi (Alhyn and 
Bacon) ; Sand's La Mare au Diable (Holt) ; Theuriet's Bigarreau 
(Heath) ; Thiers's Bonaparte en Egypte (Holt) ; Michelet's La 
Prise de la Bastille (Ginn) ; Taine's Les Origines de la France Con- 
temporaine (Holt); Hugo's La Chute (Heath). 

Remarks on the First and Second Year's Work. 

Grammar and Composition: In the first two years the pupil 
should master the equivalent of the first 175 pages of Fraser and 
Squair's French Grammar,' not including the less important ir- 
regular verbs, and including some important sections of the re- 
mainder of the book. Fraser and Squair's grammar is recom- 
mended for its judicious arrangement of material and copious exer- 



*Although somewhat old-fashioned, the language of those tales is not 
sufficiently different from modern French to be objectionable. 



50 Teaching in High Schools. 

rises, which are, however, open to the objection that they can be 
written more or less mechanically. Composition should begin at 
once, and pupils be required to write an exercise daily. Exercises 
should frequently be assigned which cover all the ground gone over, 
and do not merely illustrate one or two rules. Pupils should be 
asked to state accurately the reasons for all they do. They should, 
for instance, be able to answer such questions as these: When is 
the hyphen used? When does elision occur? What are the rules 
for position of verb and subject in questions? How are the rela- 
tive pronouns used ? It is true that pupils can, without being able 
to formulate any rules, learn to do many of these things by mere 
practice. It is also true that the attempt to do this usually results 
in slovenly work, and. later, in an incurable dislike of the subject. 
The memorizing of sentences should begin early ; it is the best 
means of learning the pronunciation ; yet it is, perhaps, well not 
to insist too strongly on this before the pupil has begun to feel 
at home in the language. 

Conversation : The teacher must be guided largely by the spe- 
cial circumstances of the work in determining the importance of 
practice in conversation, and how much time is to be given to the 
subject. Only in exceptional cases does it seem advisable to stress 
this kind of work at the expense of the rest. It is important in 
teaching pronunciation. Used judiciously, it may serve to stimu- 
late interest, and this consideration alone is sufficient to justify a 
certain amount of it. Under no circumstances should the pupil 
be encouraged or allowed to speak in broken or ungrammatical sen- 
tences. There can be no doubt that the best preparation for con- 
versation is a solid basis of grammar, and it should, therefore, not 
be introduced too early. 

Heading : It is suggested that the reading be not begun before 
the second half of the first year's work. It is the custom with 
many teachers to begin reading much earlier than this. One ad- 
vantage of the plan, it is claimed, is that it gives the pupil the feel- 
ing that he is progressing rapidly, and ensures interest. It is also 
claimed that, after all, the chief difficulty in learning a modern 
language is the acquisition of a vocabulary, and that it is, there- 
fore, desirable to begin reading early, and to read as much as pos- 
sible and as rapidly as possible. In reply it might be urged that 
the novelty of translating soon wears off, that grammar can be 



French. 51 

made interesting to pupils who are willing to work — and the others 
need not be considered, — that the interest which comes from doing 
something thoroughly is the only wholesome form of interest, and 
that to postpone the reading until a solid 'foundation of forms has 
been laid is the shortest way in the end. The reading should pro- 
ceed slowly and carefully for some time, say until the end of the 
first year; after this, it may be well to combine accurate reading 
and careful explanation of all difficulties with rapid reading. Sight 
reading, during the first two years, seems of doubtful profit. Idio- 
matic translations are doubtless a good training in English. The 
teacher must determine how far he is responsible for the pupil's 
English. The first text read should be selections of easy, modern 
prose, and narrative rather than dramatic. Many texts are pub- 
lished by Heath, Ginn, Holt, and others, and it is easy to make a 
selection. Standard authors should be preferred. In the course 
of two years some four or five hundred pages should be read. Cer- 
tain texts have been suggested above, but no special advantage is 
claimed for them over others. 

If too much stress seems to have been laid on the grammar, it 
may be well to remark that many of the students who apply for 
admission to the advanced courses in the University are found to 
be in a very hazy and muddled condition, and more difficult to 
teach than if they had no French at all. It should also be noticed 
that the practical, rapid and natural methods are largely responsi- 
ble for the contempt in which the modern languages are not alto- 
gether undeservedly held as disciplinary studies. 

Third and Fourth Year's Work. 

Grammar and Composition : In the course of these two years, 
a fairly full grammar, such as Fraser and Squair's, or Edgren's, 
should be completed. Composition should comprise, in addition to 
illustrative sentences from the grammar, practice in writing sen- 
tences based on text. The teacher can easily prepare such sen- 
tences, or he can use some of the many exercise-books based on this 
plan. The next step should be reproduction of passages read. It 
does not seem desirable to attempt original composition or transla- 
tion of selections, not especially prepared for the purpose. The 
writing of idiomatic French is extremely difficult, and no good is 
done by writing French which is not idiomatic. 



52 Teaching in High Schools. 

Conversation : If the teacher wishes to stress conversation or to 
conduct the recitation in French, his course will probably meet 
with popular approval and with the approval of his classes. Yet 
this is not conducive to the acquisition of a large vocabulary by the 
pupil, and in such performances, the teacher is usually the chief 
performer. The pupil profits according to the effort he puts forth. 

Eeading: It is probably best to confine the reading to nine- 
teenth century authors, unless an exception be made for one or two 
plays of Moliere. It is probably well, also, to partake sparingly 
of the French poets. The novelists and dramatists furnish most 
of the texts read with accidental excursions into the historians and 
critics. A certain amount of sight reading may prove profitable. 
From eight hundred to a thousand pages should be read in the 
third and fourth years. 

SPANISH. 

In general, the remarks already made concerning modern lan- 
guage teaching are applicable here likewise. Care should be taken 
to do thoroughly whatever is done. Spanish, being a compara- 
tively simple language for the beginner, and being considered still 
easier than it is, is often carelessly taken up. Definite training 
in vocabulary, phrase and sentence work is of paramount 
importance, the construction should receive constant attention, 
orthographical principles should be mastered at the beginning and 
constantly practised, accents should not be neglected, and, if con- 
versation is used as a class-method, it should have for basis oral 
reproduction of material read by or to the pupils, and should be 
definite. Cultivate the ear and a feeling for the language, so 
that the pupil may not only gain knowledge of the language, but 
power to learn more of it. 

The following suggestions are offered for a four-year high-school 
course, with five recitations weekly of forty-five minutes each. 

Grammar and Composition: During the first two years the es- 
sentials of the grammar should be thoroughly and accurately pre- 
sented and well drilled on ; as a rule, it is wise to avoid much gram- 
matical detail at first, especially with young students. The method 
of presentation will differ according to the age of the pupils, their 
general preparation and their linguistic equipment. What iej 



Spanish. 53 

taught should be clearly given, and its importance and logical con- 
nection well understood. At this stage it is probably best to lay 
stress on the regular verbs and the auxiliaries (teaching gradually 
the most common irregular verbs at the same time) ; on the correct 
use of verb tenses, especially tenses indicating action in the past; 
on the use of the pronouns; on passive and easy reflexive con- 
structions; on the fundamental idiomatic uses of ser, estar, haber, 
tener, hacer; on idioms involving numerals; on the use and posi- 
tion of adjectives; on simple infinitive and subjunctive construc- 
tions. From the first, a correct understanding should be required 
and correct habits implanted with regard to the principles of con- 
struction, and to the use of dependent clauses. Composition to 
begin ; sentences to be frequently written ; review exercises to be 
given covering ground gone over, as well as exercises illustrating 
special principles. Memorizing of good illustrative sentences may 
prove helpful in many ways. Again, let thoroughness be insisted 
upon in the grammar work, keeping the interest aroused. 

During the third and fourth years the grammar should be re- 
viewed, and the topics already studied should be emphasized and 
expanded. Syntax must be dwelt upon. Among the topics of 
peculiar importance are now: the subjunctive and the conditional 
future, the quasi-auxiliaries, the correspondence of tenses, the 
much abused para and por, imperfect and aorist constructions, etc. 
The construction of the sentence should be studied from a more 
advanced standpoint; composition should be continued, and its 
scope gradually widened, care being always taken to insist upon 
the use, in writing, of idiomatic Spanish. 

Throughout the grammar course, after principles are mastered, 
they may be profitably reviewed in connection with the reading 
done, and upon this again, reproduction and other forms of com- 
position may be based. This affords variety, and usually tends to 
give life and interest to the work. Besides, such methods are 
likely to result in the acquisition of a fairer vocabulary and a 
deeper insight into the language than can usually be gained by 
total dependence on disconnected sentence work. 

As to books, a few may be suggested. With young beginners 
Knoflach's Spanish Simplified often gives good results; Marion y 
des Garennes's Introduction a la Lengua Castellana, if carefully 
handled, gives a good introduction for practical purposes ; the same 



54 Teaching in High Schools. 

is true of De Tornos; Giese's First Spanish Bool- is excellent, if 
reading be made the central point of interest and the basis of the 
grammar taught; Garner's Spanish Grammar is convenient, espe- 
cially to follow a very brief outline course such as that given by 
Knoflach or Marion y des Garennes; Monsanto's grammar is prac- 
tical, but ill-arranged and hardly systematic. Hills and Ford's 
Spanish Grammar, recently published, is a very useful book, practi- 
cal and well-arranged, and covering the essentials. For more ad- 
vanced work, either of Ramsey's Spanish Grammars is best; 
Knapp's, though very good, lacks revision and exercises. The teacher 
should own and consult at least one or two advanced grammars 
written in Spanish, especially the most recent edition of the Gra- 
matica de la Academia espahola, and Bello y Cuervo's or Pena's 
very useful grammars. 

Heading: As soon as practicable, reading should be introduced 
into the course; apart from other things, attractive stories, after 
all, do vary the work pleasantly, even at an early stage. But the 
reading must proceed carefully, and, at first, slowly. After the 
first stage, continued works of standard prose authors should be 
preferred where they are accessible; D. C. Heath & Co., Wm. Jen- 
kins, B. D. Cortina, Henry Holt, Appleton, The American Book 
Co., all publish commendable texts. At first, and particularly 
for very young pupils, and as material for varied work (or later 
for sight reading), good readers, such as those published by Silver, 
Burdett & Co., are useful. Ramsey's and Matzke's readers are 
very good; Knapp's is difficult, but contains excellent extracts. 
During the first and second years, probably some three to four 
hundred or four hundred and fifty pages may be read; during the 
third and fourth, something over twice as much. Enough good, 
idiomatic Spanish should be read to give the students something of 
the spirit of the language; tales like Trueba's Molinerillo or Val- 
des's Jose doubless leave a definite mark. It will be found inad- 
visable to introduce into the high school specimens of the classical 
drama, but some of the modern plays, such as Moratin's El Si de 
las Ninas, make good reading. In judiciously made extracts, the 
Don Quijote may be approached in the fourth year, seldom earlier. 
Well-selected essays afford variety in the reading. 

Interest may be aroused by putting into the hands of pupils, in- 
formally, such books as Conant's Primer of Spanish Literature, 



German. 55 



Mrs. Oliphant's Cervantes, and the volumes on Spain and Mexico 
in the Story of the Nations Series. Spanish thought and litera- 
ture are distinctively national, and anything that helps to a true 
picture of Spanish life in the broad sense will give a better in- 
sight into the literature. 



GERMAN. 

1. First and second years: Grammar and Composition — 
Essentials of German grammar; translation of easy, idiomatic 
English into German ; special attention given to the construction 
of the article, noun, adjective, pronoun and verb; constant atten- 
tion paid in reading and speaking to pronunciation and to German- 
English cognates. 

Heading and Conversation: Reading of easy, idiomatic Ger- 
man — especially graded stories, — and composition work based on 
the text required. Repetition of the passsages read in the pupil's 
own words will form material for conversation, but should be 
sparingly indulged in. About three to five hundred pages read in 
all. 

Text-books: A Brief German Grammar, by W. D. Whitney 
(Holt) ; Elementary German Grammar, by C. P. Ottis (Holt) ; 
Graded German Lessons, by W. Eysenbach, revised by C. Collar 
(Ginn) ; The Elements of German, by H. C. Bierwirth (Holt) ; 
A German Method for Beginners, by F. J. Lange (Allyn and 
Bacon) ; A Practical German Grammar, by Calvin Thomas 
(Holt) ; Essentials of German, by B. J. Vos (Holt) ; A German 
Grammar, by Joynes-Meissner (Heath) ; Beginning Grammar, by 
H. C. Bierwirth (Holt) ; A German Reader and Theme-Booh, by 
Calvin Thomas and W. A. Hervey (Holt) ; A German Reader, by 
H. P. Jones (Appleton) ; A German Reader, by Huss (Heath). 
Or, better, any collection of short stories like Bernhardt's Im 
Zivielicht. 

Third and fourth years : Review of elementary grammar based 
on easy modern prose; modern German idioms, word-order, sen- 
tence-structure, use of model auxiliaries, German-English cog- 
nates, bi-weekly composition based on some appropriate text; 
especial attention is given to free composition, word-formation, 
synonyms, idiomatic and conversational German stressed; modern 



56 Teaching in High Schools. 

German short stories and comedies are read, about three to five 
hundred pages in all. Suitable books for reading may be se- 
lected from the intermediate texts of Ginn, Heath, Macmillan, 
Appleton, American Book Company, Allyn and Bacon, and others. 
Grammars same as above. 

Remarks on the First and Second Year's Wor~k. 

The work of the first and second year should consist mainly in 
drill on forms, on modern German idioms, word-order, sentence- 
structure, etc. Stress should be laid on pronunciation and here 
the teacher will have to do the work himself. Unless he knows 
the German pronunciation perfectly and can teach it from personal 
knowledge, and not from book knowledge, little progess will be 
made. No standard pronunciation exists in German any more 
than in English, but an accepted one does to a certain extent pre- 
vail. The grammars, however, do not give accurate rules, nay, 
worse, they often give false pronunciations that exist nowhere; 
hence the need of a good teacher. Beading should be begun as 
early as possible and drill in pronunciation connected with it. 
Grammars containing good idiomatic colloquies are best suited 
for these years, as the pupil will thus get the best idioms of the 
German with a knowledge of grammar and the vocabulary. These 
colloquies also a»fford a fine opportunity for conversation, if the 
teacher wishes to make use of it. It is best, however, to postpone 
conversation until the third or fourth years. 

Selections for reading are so abundant now-a-days that one can 
hardly fail to find something suited to any class. Graded readers, 
selections of graded stories and short stories are the best to begin 
with. In selecting, one should be careful and get a story not only 
written in idiomatic German, but also treating of German cus- 
toms and manners. For instance, Das Madchen von Treppi, 
though written in good, idomatic German, deals with Italian life 
and manners and should therefore be discarded. Take something 
genuinely German. The same line of reasoning would discard 
Der Neffe als Orikel, charming as the play is. We study German 
in order to put ourselves in the place of the Germans and see 
things as they see them. 

To do this work well requires a superior teacher who has not 
only the knowledge but also the tact to teach thoroughly and com- 



German. 57 

petently the preparatory part of modern language study. When 
those in authority become as careful in selecting the teachers of 
modern languages as they now are in selecting those for Latin, 
Greek, Mathematics, and English the contempt which has so long 
existed for modern languages will soon disappear. A united effort 
will hasten that day. 

Remarks on the Third and Fourth Year's Work. 

These years should be devoted to syntax, reading and free repro- 
duction, of passages taken from some appropriate text. Here 
style and sentence-structure should be especially stressed and ad- 
vance should be slow. Let the teacher take some suitable passage 
and form several simple sentences from it and then teach the 
class how to enlarge those to compound and complex sentences, 
calling attention at the same time to word-order and style. Con- 
versation can then be based on these passages, at first in simple 
sentences and then in more complex, thus enlarging the pupil's 
knowledge of the German sentence from every point of view. In 
this way two objects will be accomplished ; viz., interest will be 
secured and the foundation of a thorough knowledge of the Ger- 
man sentence will be laid. On this foundation the teacher can 
build a fine superstructure for the grammar and for conversa- 
tion. 

The reading should be selections from the best prose writings of 
the nineteenth century, novels, dramas, and histories. The short 
story, or novelette is excellent for this purpose and enough material 
may be found in the publications already mentioned. More dif- 
ficult works should also be read. Historical prose like Schiller's 
Thirty Years' War, Wallenstein's Life, etc., is excellent. Dramas 
should be sparingly read and even then the light comedies of Ben- 
edix, Moser, Wilhelmi, etc., are best. Minna von Barnhelm will 
be the best of the great classics, but the others should be taken up 
later and at higher institutions of learping where the necessary 
equipment for their proper study is at hand. 

In conclusion stress must be laid on the fact that these years 
are assigned to elementary work and contain enough work in that 
line to occupy the whole time of the teacher and pupil. There- 
fore any digression into higher fields that may be more agreeable 



58 Teaching in High Schools. 

to both teacher and pupil can only be at the expense of the pre- 
paratory part of the work. It does an injury to the pupil that 
can never be repaired. For he is in the first place too immature 
to pursue these higher studies profitably, as his mind can not yet 
grasp the great message of the authors read, and secondly he is 
not yet sufficiently well prepared and equipped to pursue them to 
advantage. The pupil should make haste slowly, and then he will 
advance surely, without having to retrace his steps and begin over 
again. Faust is an enigma to many mature minds, Wilhelm Tell, 
though easy to read, requires too extensive original research for 
sources, etc., to be read profitably at this stage. Iphigenie de- 
mands a knowledge of Greek, and is therefore unsuited for pre- 
paratory schools, Nathan der Weise is a religious controversy and 
presupposes a thorough knowledge of historical Christianity; in 
fact, all authors not belonging strictly to preparatory work require 
too advanced knowledge for this stage. More interest can be 
aroused, more real advance can be made, by using texts which are 
peculiarly adapted to elementary work. 

For the guidance of the teacher the following list of books is 
added : 

Text-books for the teacher: 

C. H. Grandgent, German and English Sounds (Ginn & Co.). 

Wilhelm Victor, German Pronunciation, (0. E. Eeisland, Leip- 
zig, Germany). 

Calvin Thomas, A Practical German Grammar (Holt). 

W. D. Whitney, A Compendious German Grammar (Holt). 

H. C. G. Brandt, A Grammar of the German Language (Allyn 
and Bacon). 

In German: 

T. C. A. Heyse, Lehrouch der deutschen Sprache (Hanover, 
Germany) . 

August Schleicher, Die Deutsche Sprache (Stuttgart, Germany). 

For pupils: 

Easy Beading: 

The selections are unlimited, the best choice being found in the 
Report of Committee on College Entrance Requirements, p. 109. 

W. D. Whitney, A Brief German Grammar (Holt). 

C. P. Otis, Elementary German Grammar (Holt). 



German. 

59 



(GlnTcot Gmded GermaU L6SS0nS > "** * W - C « dollar 
Joynes-Mdssner, German Grammar (D. C. Heath & Co.). 

Sylvester Primer, 
Associate Professor of Germanic Languages 
Lilia M. Casis, 
Adjunct Professor of Spanish. 



BOTANY IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

The writer desires to take advantage of this opportunity to em- 
phasize the importance of placing the study of Botany in the cur- 
riculum of every high school in the State. It is his opinion, 
futher, that every school supported by the State should offer in- 
structions in Botany on the ground that, as the State's resources 
are largely measured by the products of plant growth — cotton, 
cereals, lumber, fruit, grasses, and garden products, — the study 
would be supposed to improve the quality and increase the quantity 
of these staple products and so add to the wealth and prosperity of 
the commonwealth. Even now, the State is committed to a policy 
of this kind in the purpose of having elementary agriculture 
taught in the public schools. It will be found that this course 
in elementary agriculture will consist in the main of botanical 
study in one phase or another, and incidentally it may be remarked 
that the botanical training in the high school will be utilized in 
large measure in carrying out the design. 

To give more emphasis to the fact that provision for the study 
of Botany in public schools is a good investment for the State, 
one need only point out what botanical investigations are doing 
at the present time in behalf of interests identified with the grow- 
ing of plants. The National Government alone employs several 
hundred men trained in various lines of Botany to carry on inves- 
tigations with plants with a view to improving quality, increasing 
yield, or otherwise making their cultivation more profitable, and 
more than three million dollars is spent in this work annually. As 
a result, varieties of cotton are being discovered which either have 
a better staple or more of it, or which mature earlier or are more 
immune against the attacks of cotton enemies. Similarly, 
varieties of wheat have been originated which are better suited to 
hot, dry climates, which resist the rust better, and whose grain is 
more valuable, by reason of its hardness, for special purposes. 
And so on with corn and other grains, with fruits and vegetables, 
with cattle ranges, forests, et cetera. These gains come about as 
a consequence of a clear insight into the phenomena of plant life 
toward which the study of Botany leads. 

Eeturning to the first statement about the importance of Bot- 
any in the high school, the utilitarian idea just exploited is to 
be placed second to the value of Botany as a means of education. 



Botany. 61 

There is, of course, here involved a training of the powers of ob- 
servation and discernment, of dexterity in manipulation and of 
clearness and conciseness in expressing judgments, but of special 
importance is the field of knowledge with which the study ac- 
quaints one. It is the domain of biology. Here one inquires as 
to the origin and properties of living substance. He observes 
how it expresses itself in organized forms, and how from a simple 
beginning there has been an unfolding into countless forms of 
great diversity and complexity but all united by the tie of com- 
mon descent. One may not stop to specify further, but we may 
accept the oft-repeated statement that no other field of study in 
modern times has had so profound an influence upon the thought 
of the world as the study of biology. It would be poor economy 
that continued to neglect so powerful an educational agency. 

The argument here is of course for biology in general rather than 
for plant biology alone. That would no doubt be the better course 
which considered both the field of plant biology and of animal 
biology together, but since there are limitations as to the scope of 
the course and preferences as to the agreeableness and availability 
of materials for study, the case of Botany is here especially set 
forth. This leads to the presentation of a third reason for placing 
Botany in the course of study, namely, that the materials are 
abundant, conveniently at hand and agreeable to work with and 
that no large initial expense is necessary in providing for the work, 
though to be sure the possession of compound microscopes, for 
example, would be a great advantage. 

Briefly, then, the study of Botany is emphasized, first, because 
of its training value; second, because it furnishes a rational basis 
of knowledge upon which to develop the State's largest resources; 
third, because of the moderate expense in organizing and maintain- 
ing the course and of the abundance, availability, and agreeableness 
of the materials worked with. 

THE NATURE OF THE COURSE. 

In spite of the abundance of material to draw from, it has been 
no easy matter to decide what should be utilized in a high-school 
course or in what order to present it. The selection becomes still 
more difficult where the equipment does not include compound 
microscopes. This much seems certain, that the old system of 
analyzing flowers and laboriously struggling through a key to the 
Latin name, of amassing a vocabulary of meaningless names of 



62 Teaching in High Schools. 

parts whose structure and function might be wholly unsuspected, is 
to be discarded as practically worthless for educational purposes. 
Not only have much time and energy been wasted along this line, 
but by assuming this procedure to represent botanical study the 
virility of the subject has been brought into question. If we 
keep in mind that this is a biological study, then we confine our 
choice of material to that which will give insight into biological 
phenomena; i. e. we shall study largely living plants themselves. 
Accordingly, physiology which deals with life processes, together 
with structure and adaptation of organs through which the func- 
tions are performed, will form the basis and largely the content 
of the course. 

It is maintained by some very superior teachers of Botany, that 
in the high-school course the student should begin with the lowest 
forms of plants and (assuming an equipment of compound micro- 
scopes) follow a series of types representing the various groups 
of plants from the lowest to the highest. This order is followed in 
the first year's work in Botany at The University of Texas. For 
high schools, however, where the students are somewhat less mature 
and where there may be no compound microscopes, it seems more 
advisable to begin with objects that are more or less familiar and 
easily seen and handled. Since in popular belief if not in fact the 
cycle of life in the highest plants begins with the seed, that 
familiar structure furnishes a good beginning point from which 
the cycle of life in the individual may be followed in its evolution 
from the relatively minute embryo through its germination period, 
its seedling stage, and so on to the mature plant which in turn 
produces seed like that from which itself sprang. 

Following this could be taken up the study of the plant kingdom 
in which, as in the preceding part, the most primitive plants are 
studied first and the more advanced successively in the order in 
which they seem to have evolved, until the highest — the higher 
seed plants — are reached. This part may be made brief as indeed 
it would need to be in case no compound microscopes were avail- 
able. 

A third part is further recommended which shall have in view 
the adaptation of plants to their environment. The first division 
will continue from the point reached in part two which ends with 
the study of the lily as a type of angiosperms. It will endeavor to 
trace the evolution of the flower through a series of progressive 
groups running from the most primitive to the most advanced. 



Botany. 63 

The evolution here meant is that along the line of adaptation to 
pollination by special agencies — especially insects. 

The second division of part two will consider the subject of 
adaptation to physical environment of which climate and soils 
are the two general groups of factors. It will show how the factors 
of light, temperature, moisture, soil texture, etc., influence the 
structure and distribution of plants and will in particular deal 
with the plant geography of Texas from which a great wealth of 
illustration may be drawn. 

Such is in brief the plan of the course of study recommended 
for the high schools. It is by no means prescribed in toto but it 
is believed advisable to embrace in the year's work as wide a range 
of subjects as is here given. 

Following is a synopsis of the three parts of the course: 

Part 1. The study of a series of typical seeds; general structure, 
relation of embryo to food supply, experiments to determine vital 
processes in germinating seed. The seedling and the establishment 
of its relation to soil, light and other factors of its environment — 
especially with reference to nutrition. The gross anatomy and 
so far as possible the minute anatomy of roots, leaves, and stems 
considered especially in connection with the functions of these 
organs; variations in form and structure in roots, leaves and stems 
as adaptations to special purposes. The flower considered briefly as 
a shoot with its leaf members especially adapted by correlation to 
promote the vital function of reproduction. 

Part II. The study of a series of types representing the large 
groups of the Plant Kingdom; the gross structure and, with 
compound microscopes, the minute structure is to be studied and 
in each case the life history, i. e., the complete cycle of the 
individual is to be learned. The types embrace; a green alga, 
preferably Spirogyra, with superficial examination of numerous 
others; a moss, preferably the common Funaria; a fern, the 
maiden hair fern or the bracken fern (Pteris) ; Equisetum, and 
by special arrangement for collection, a Selaginella; the pine — 
any one of the three native Eastern Texas species will answer; 
the lily — adder tongue, crow poison, Camassia, easter lily, etc., will 
answer. In the study of the lily at this point only the floral 
structures are to be considered and in this, the attempt will be to 
understand the lily flower in its relation to the reproductive organs 
of the immediately preceding groups of plants. 

Part III. From the study of the minute structure and function 



64 Teaching in High Schools. 

of the lily flower pass to the study of a series of flower types 
designed to show the evolution of the flower in its relation to 
pollinating agencies — especially insects. From Monocotyledon? 
select, say, the following: the cat-tail flag, or the pond-weed, a 
grass (the oat flower), water plantain, or arrowhead, a lily, an 
Amaryllis, Iris and Canna. From the Dicotyledons: the willow, 
or pecan, hackberry, buttercup, or Anemone, or Magnolia, larkspur, 
or columbine, geranium, or Oxalis, and nasturtium, the cotton 
blossom, the violet, the blue bonnet, or the sweet pea, the pink, 
evening primrose, nightshade, or morning glory, Salvia, or horse- 
mint, honeysuckle, "dandelion" (Pyrrhopappus), "ragged robin" 
(Lygodesmia), thistle or Centaurea, sunflower, or "fire wheel" 
( G aillardia pulchella ) . 

The second division of part III : The Plant Geography of Texas. 
There will first be a brief general consideration of the environ- 
mental factors which influence the structure and habits of plants — 
temperature, moisture, light, soil texture, soil chemistry, etc., and 
specific illustrations of the effect they produce singly and in 
co-operation. Next, these factors will be considered in their 
specific relation to the Texas region and the distribution of plants 
as determined by them, but more especially the association of 
plants together forming characteristic types of vegetation or vege- 
tation formations; e. g., forest, prairie, chaparral. From these 
formations prominent species are to be selected for a study of 
the special adaptations in form and structure to their particular 
habitat, e. g., prickly pear and other cacti, spanish-d agger, long 
feaf pine, shade plants, water plants, etc. 

For the subjects comprised in part I, II, and the first division of 
III such texts as Atkinson, Bergen, Leavitt, and Stevens are to 
be recommended. Some of these also introduce the subject of 
plant geography, but the particular presentation of the subject 
indicated here — based on Warming's Ecological Plant Geography 
— has not yet been made available for use in any text-book in this 
country. On this account, and because of the desire to extend the 
knowledge of and interest in the plant geography of Texas, the 
writer has in mind to publish a bulletin on the subject for distribu- 
tion among the schools of the State. 

AMOUNT OF WORK REQUIRED FOR AFFILIATION. 

In the scheme of elective entrance requirements to the Univer- 
sity, Botany, where offered, absolves what is designated one credit. 



Botany. 65 

This presupposes one full year of botanical study with the 
equivalent of one daily exercise of forty-five minutes duration for 
a term of at least thirty weeks. It is further required that at 
least one half the course be devoted to laboratory work. For the 
remainder there will be regular class periods in which the teachei 
will present new subjects or summarize work by lectures, hear 
recitations from text-books, reports upon collateral reading, experi- 
ments, field work, and so on. It would be preferable to have 
laboratory periods of double the length of the recitation period. 
The arrangement recommended would be, two class exercises 
weekly of forty-five minutes each, and three ninety-minute labora- 
tory periods weekly. The minimum basis accepted would be two 
class exercises and two ninety-minute laboratory periods weekly. 
It is customary to require three hours of laboratory work as the 
equivalent of preparing and reciting one lesson. 

EQUIPMENT. 

It was intimated in the previous paragraph that the initial 
equirment for botanical study need involve no large outlay of 
funds. Let this not be a misleading statement. A liberal equip- 
ment is highly desirable in order to insure reasonably efficient 
work. But if high schools wait for equipment, the introduction 
of Botany will be too long delayed. Better begin with what can be 
had and gradually acquire the rest. There may be no room for a 
laboratory, no extra time for laboratory periods, no compound 
microscopes ; still, if there be a teacher who knows Botany and can 
teach it, who knows where to find material for study and how to 
utilize it, who has some skill in devising experiments, the course 
will succeed anyhow and the material equipment will inevitably 
follow. The sine qua non of equipment, then, is a good teacher 
well equipped to teach Botany. On the average, it is safe to say 
that when a live teacher of natural science demonstrates objectively 
the value of his work, the trustees come forward with equipment 
money. 

Let more good teachers get thoroughly prepared to carry on 
laboratory science courses in the high school and it will not be long 
until every high school in the state will have a laboratory reason- 
ably equipped for at least one of the natural sciences. 

In order to meet the need for specific information in regard 
to the nature and cost of equipment for laboratory work in the 
hio-h school, there are given here two estimates of which the first, 



66 Teaching in High Schools. 

A, may be described as liberal, the second, B, as very moderate. 
Both estimates are based on accommodations for twenty students 
at one sitting. 

ESTIMATE A.— A liberal equipment. 

1. Special laboratory room, well lighted, preferably with east 
and north exposure. Water and gas connections if possible. 

2. Five laboratory tables, each accommodating four pupils; 
one drawer and locker for each student, made by local mill 

or carpenters, from special design ; estimated cost $ 60 00 

3. Ten compound microscopes at $30 each 300 00 

4. Twenty dissecting microscopes at $3 each 60 00 

5. One wall case for instruments and supplies ; made by local 
workmen from special designs; estimated cost 15 00 

6. Standard section of herbarium case made as in 5 ; estima- 
ted cost 10 00 

7. Twelve to twenty feet of broad table shelving for aquarium 

jars, cultures, standing experiments, etc., estimated cost.... 10 00 

8. Glassware, pots, germinating trays and other utensils for 
growing specimens and for experiments ; estimated cost 10 00 

9. Standard chemicals, preserving fluids, etc. ; estimated cost.... 10 00 

10. Plant press, drying and pressing paper, collecting box; es- 
timated cost...* 5 00 

(Most of these items furnished also by the students as a part 
of their own equipment.) 

11. Reference books; see *list below; estimated cost about 50 00 

Total estimated cost $530 00 

ESTIMATE B. — A very moderate equipment. 

1. Regular recitation room and desks to be used for laboratory 
exercises. 

2. Special case of drawers and shelves for supplies; estimated cost..$10 00 

3. Twenty dissecting microscopes, home made ; students furnish 
their own lenses; estimated cost 5 00 

4. Utensils for growing class material, experiments, etc; estima- 
ted cost 5 00 

5. Jars for preserved specimens preserving fluid, etc., estima- 
ted cost 5 00. 

6. Outfits for pressing plants furnished by students. 

7. Books 3, 9, 18, 28, 29, 34, 35, 36, in list below; about 25 00 

Total about $55 00 

REFERENCE LIBRARY. 

The following list of books is recommended as a liberal equip- 
ment in collateral reading. Such a list offers opportunity for 



Botany. 67 

students to properly organize and relate the knowledge they gain 
in class and in the laboratory. The books starred (*) in this list 
are recommended for estimate A. Specially selected ones for 
estimate B as shown above. For convenience, the publisher and list 
price are given with each : 

BOOK LIST. 

1. Arthur, Barnes and Coulter, Handbook of Plant Dissection, 

superseded by Caldwell's Handbook of Plant Morphology. 
Holt, 1904 $1 00 

2. Arthur and MacDougal, Living Plants and their Proper- 

ties, New York, Baker and Taylor 1 25 

*3. Atkinson, College Botany, Holt, 1904 2 00 

4. Atkinson, Lessons in Botany, Holt 1 12 

5. Bailey, Lessons icith Plants, N. Y., McMillan and Co.... 1 10 
*6. Bailey, An Elementary Text-Book, McMillan 1 10 

7. Bailey, Plant Breeding, 3d Ed., McMillan 1 25 

8. Barnes, Plant Life, Holt 1 12 

*9. Bergen, Foundations in Botany, Southern Edition, Bos- 
ton, Ginn and Co 1 50 

10. Bergen. Teacher's Manual, Ginn 30 

11. Bergen, Elements of Botany, Revised, Ginn 1 00 

12. Bessey, The Essentials of Botany, Holt 1 08 

13. Britton, Manual of Botany of the North-Eastern United 

States, Holt 2 25 

14. Caldwell, Laboratory and Field Manual of Botany, N. Y., 

Appleton and Co 90 

See also 1, above. 

*15. Campbell, Lectures on the Evolution of Plants, MacMillan 1 25 

*16. Campbell, A University Text-Book of Botany, MacMillan.. 4 00 
17. Clements and Cutter, Laboratory Manual in High-School 

Botany, Lincoln, Neb., Univ. Pub. Co 75 

*18. Coulter, Plant Relations and Plant Structures, Appleton 1 80 

19. Coulter, Plant Studies, Appleton 1 25 

*20. Coulter, Botany of Western Texas, Supt. of Documents, 

Washington, D. C 50 

21. Curtis, Text-Book of General Botany, N. Y., Longmans, 

Green and Co 3 00 

*22. Conn, Agricultural Bacteriology, N. Y., P. Blakiston and 

Sons 2 50 

23. Darwin, Insectivorous Plants, N. Y., Appleton, 6th Ed.... 2 00 

*24. Darwin, Fertilization of Orchids, N. Y., Appleton, 6th Ed. 2 00 

*25. Ganong, The Teaching Botanist, Macmillan 1 10 

*26. Ganong, Laboratory Course in Plant Physiology, Holt 1 00 

*27. Green, Principles of American Forestry, N. Y., John Wiley 

and Sons 1 20 

*28. Kerner, Translated by Oliver, Natural History of Plants, 

2 Vols,. Holt 11 00 



68 Teaching in High Schools. 

*29. Leavitt, Outlines of Botany with Flora, N. Y., American 

Book Co 2 25 

*29a. Lloyd and Bigelow, The Teaching of Biology, Longmans, 

1904 1 50 

30. MacDougal, Practical Text-Book of Plant Physiology, N. 

Y., Longmans 3 00 

31. Pammel, L. H., Ecology, Ames, Iowa.. 3 00 

*32. Parker, Elementary Biology, 6th or later Ed., MacMillan 3 00 
*33. Setchell, Laboratory Practice for Beginners, MacMillan... . 90 
*34. Small, Dr. John K., Flora of the Southeastern United 

States (good westward to 100th Meridian), N. Y., Bo- 
tanical Garden, Bronx Park, N. Y 2 50 

*35. Spalding, Guide to Study of Common Plants, Boston, D. 

C. Heath & Co 90 

*36. Stevens, Introduction to Botany — Key and Flora, Heath.... 1 25 

37. Strasburger, Noll, Schenck and Sehimper, Translated by 

• Porter, A Text-Book of Botany, MacMillan 4 00 

38. Underwood, Our Native Ferns and their Allies, Holt 1 25 

*39. Warming, English Translation, Plant Geography, Oxford, 

Clarendon Press (Ready in 1904; apply to Lemcke and 
Buechner, New York, N. Y.) (?) 

DEALERS IN LABORATORY SUPPLIES. 

The following firms are mentioned because of the writers per- 
sonal knowledge (through several years of business relation) of 
the standard quality of the goods furnished at usual market 
prices : 

Bausch and Lomb Optical Co., Bochester, New York. 

Cambridge Botanical Supply Company, Cambridge, Mass. 

Kny Scheerer Co. (Importers), New York. 

Spencer Lens Company, Buffalo, N. Y. 

Williams Brown and Earle, 918 Chestnut St., Philadelphia. 

STUDENT EQUIPMENT. 

In a laboratory course, certain items of equipment are cus- 
tomarily furnished by the student himself. Such equipment is 
rarely of so great expense as to seriously deter students from 
pursuing the course. 

1. A text book. See 3 or 9, or 18 or 29 in Book List. Cost 

$1.10 to $2 00 

2. A magnifying glass. Cost 50 cents to 75 

3. Drawing paper and pencil, note paper and manila cover for 

notes and drawings 50 

4. Home made dissecting needles 

5. Sharp pocket knife or old razor 

6. Home made plant press 

Total cost need not exceed $3 50 



Botany. 69 

Other desirable though not indispensable items — e. g. forceps, 
section razor, tin collecting box — may be added as means and 
inclination permit. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF LABORATORY WORK. 

Too much stress cannot be laid upon this method of pursuing a 
course in natural science. It is the means of direct contact with 
the objects of study and of training in methods of work, in habits 
of close observation, in verbal expression of accurate judgments, in 
dexterity of manipulation and in skillfulness in illustrative 
drawings. 

For the surer realization of the ends sought in pursuing labor- 
atory work certain fundamental requirements may be stated: 

1. The time of the laboratory period is to be fully employed by 
every member of the class. This is largely a matter of skill on 
the instructor's part in providing suitable materials and in giving 
specific directions as to what is required. 

2. Heedless and slovenly ways of working are not to be 
tolerated. Some of the best results to be expected in laboratory 
work are neatness,* deftness and right ways of doing things. 

3. The student is required to keep a suitable record of his work 
in the form of a book of notes and drawings bound together under 
manila or pasteboard cover. The making of this book is of the 
greatest importance. In laboratory work the student may forget 
text and other authority and himself become an investigator in 
new fields, the results of which investigations he must embody in a 
book of which the one feature is that it represents the best he can 
do in discovering and recording facts that to him are new. The 
work is his own. On this account it is better that his originality 
should crop out in crude though fairly exact drawings than that 
these should be reduced to the common level of a copy of some 
diagrammatic crayon drawing or chart or text figure. 

4. The content of laboratory work should embrace not only 
the study of form and structure, but also experiments demonstrat- 
ing vital processes — respiration, growth, starch formation, absorp- 
tion of nutriment, the effect of gravity and light on growing 
organs, etc., etc. Furthermore, the fixed hours and subjects of work 
in the laboratory are to be supplemented by field excursions under 
personal supervision and by the largest possible amount of individ- 
ual effort. Here, let us emphasize the special value of leading 
students to undertake larger tasks involving the cultivation of 



70 Teaching in High Schools. 

plants on a relatively large scale for experimental purposes. Each 
separately, or several jointly may establish experiment "farms" 
upon which really valuable operations may be carried on. The 
following are illustrations of possible field demonstrations : 

a. To show the difference between plants grown in the open 
and under partial shade using lattice work or cheese cloth. 

b. To show the difference between plants of the same species 
grown in soils of different texture and chemical content. 

c. To show the difference between cotton plants grown from 
small inferior seed and those from large vigorous seed taken from 
a vigorous plant. 

d. To compare results between plats of cotton planting when 
little cultivated and when frequently cultivated. 

In short, those very problems which are of vital concern to the 
farmer and upon which a great deal of attention is being con- 
centrated, may be taken up by students in a botany class as a 
feature of laboratory work — not to supplant that done in the 
laboratory proper but to extend and supplement it. It is not 
suggested that these larger operations be attempted as the regular 
work of the class — certainly not to begin with lest they involve a 
very impracticable situation — but they indicate the direction in 
which the study of Botany may be made to take hold of 'practical 
matters at a specific point. Such operations might be extended 
to comprise the varied work of regularly established school gardens 
on the one hand or to include experiments in cultivating the 
various plants of field, garden, orchard, and landscape gardening. 

W. L. Bray, 
Associate Professor of Botany. 



CHEMISTRY IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

The introduction of chemistry as one of the optional require- 
ments for admission makes it necessary to publish specific informa- 
tion concerning the character of work that must be done by 
candidates for admission who present this subject. Chemistry 
properly taught has as much educational value as any other subject ; 
badly taught, it is valueless, and, to avoid any misunderstanding on 
the part of candidates for entrance, and also in order to give the 
secondary schools due notice of what will be expected of them, the 
"Special Eeport of the Committee on Chemistry presented to the 
Committee on College Entrance Eequirements of the National 
Educational Association" (majority report) is published here in 
full. The University of Texas desires to see this report in force at 
once, because it means that chemistry will be rationally taught, — 
that dogmatism and text-book idolatry, insofar as chemistry is 
concerned, will be buried. 

A note book containing a complete record of the experiments 
he has performed, and certified by the teacher, must be presented 
at entrance by the candidate. The note book must bear evidence 
that the candidate has formed the habit of keeping an intelligible 
record of laboratory work extending through the entire series of 
experiments performed. 

The Special Eeport of the Committee on Chemistry, presented 
to the Committee on College Entrance Eequirements of the Na- 
tional Educational Association, is so valuable that it is reprinted 
here in its entirety : 

"SPECIAL EEPOET OF THE COMMITTEE ON 
CHEMISTEY. 

"presented to the committee, on college entrance require- 
ments OF THE national educational association in 1899. 



I. VALUE AND PLACE OF CHEMISTRY. 

"The study of chemistry is a valuable constituent of the high 
school course on account (1) of the training in observation in gen- 
eral and correct induction from observation which it affords, and 



72 Teaching in High Schools. 

(2) of the first-hand information which it gives about well-known 
materials, the principles of their manufacture, and their properties, 
as the result of personal observation. 

"The college invites its study in preparatory schools on account 
of these two benefits. To be of subsequent use the method and con- 
tent of the courses in preparatory schools must be definite and uni- 
form. The selected matter must be thoroughly taught, so as to 
form a recognizable constituent of the preparation of those who 
present it. When these conditions are fulfilled, the college must 
give proper recognition to the work. All colleges must give admis- 
sion credit for the subject. In addition to this each college must 
provide definite means for advancing the entrant in chemistry to 
an extent corresponding to his previous knowledge of the subject. 
The precise method of doing this will depend upon the nature of 
the course the college itself offers. In any case no pupil who 
offers chemistry for entrance, and receives definite credit for it, 
should be placed in the same class with beginners who had no such 
credit. 

"Without laboratory work school chemistry is wholly valueless 
for the purposes just mentioned. It should be preceded by physics, 
since chemistry necessarily assumes a knowledge of the physical 
properties of matter and of the phenomena connected with heat and 
electricity. If, on account of limited teaching force, relatively 
little time can be given to the science, it is preferable to give a year 
each to one or two sciences than shorter periods to a larger number. 
It must be remembered that, for the efficient teaching of science, 
preparation of apparatus and experiments for -demonstrations and 
laboratory work are necessary, and the science teacher cannot, there- 
fore, carry more than half the number of recitations assigned to 
most other teachers. 

"outline of a one-year course. 

"The work outlined below will demand at least 200 hours' work ; 
about half the time, in two-hour periods, should be spent in the lab- 
oratory. 

"II. METHOD OF TEACHING. 

"Laboratory Work. — The experiments must be performed by 
each pupil individually. 

"Each pupil must record his observations and the interpretation 
of them in a note book. Hi? work should be continuously super- 
vised and his records frequently examined by the teacher. 



Chemistry. 73 

"Most pupils will tend to fall into merely mechanical perform- 
ance of assigned work. To combat this is the most difficult task of 
the teacher of chemistry. Each experiment is a question put to 
nature, and forethought and care are necessary in putting the 
question, and study and reflection in interpreting the answer. 
Strenuous effort is required to make the pupil realize this. The 
questions incorporated in the laboratory outline, to which answers 
are expected as part of the notes; individual questioning in the 
laboratory; above all, frequent, thorough quizzing of the whole 
class, are the best means of forcing the significance of this practical 
work into the foreground. 

"Beginning at an early stage in the course, simple quantitative 
experiments should be given, in order to illustrate the laws of defi- 
nite and multiple proportion, the determination of combining and 
equivalent weights, the specific gravity of gases, etc. This will 
enable the pupil to appreciate the fact that, although the quantities 
used in the majority of laboratory exercises may not be measured, 
yet the proportions and the compositions by weight of substances 
involved in all chemical changes are definite and measureable. 
Without such measurements atomic weights will seem purely myth- 
ical. Not less than six such exercises should be given. One or 
two of these experiments must be introduced early, in order that 
formula? and equations, when the time for their employment comes, 
may be given as abbreviated expressions of the results of quanti- 
tative measurements. 

"Qualitative analysis is a branch of applied chemistry, and can- 
not be learned otherwise than mechanically without a long prepara- 
tion in general chemistry. There should be no pretense of teaching 
it in a secondary school as part (much less as the whole) of the first 
year's work. It gives a distorted view of the classifications of the 
elements and of the relative importance of their properties, and 
bears the same relation to the science of chemistry that the Lin- 
mean system -of classification in botany bears to the natural. 

"Yet exercises on the recognition of chemical substances will tend 
to fix their properties in the mind and give a useful review of many 
of the facts and principles of the science, provided that a proper 
method of conducting them be pursued. Analytical tables encour- 
age mechanical work in a remarkable degree, and cannot be permit- 
ted. An outline suggesting suitable dry- and wet-way experiments, 
which will throw the burden of thought and rigid proof on the 



74 Teaching in High Schools. 

pupil, will be a sufficient guide. This part of the work may fitly 
occupy five or six weeks of the course. 

"Class-room — Many parts of the subject can best be introduced 
by means of carefully reasoned and fully illustrated demonstrations 
by the teacher. Sometimes also this method of teaching has to be 
used where the apparatus is complicated and cannot be supplied to 
each pupil, or where, in striving to make the experiment successful, 
the pupil will be in danger of wasting time. Thus on pedagogical 
or practical grounds some of the Hofmann experiments for illus- 
trating the application of Avogadro's hypothesis (explosion of 
hydrogen and oxygen, electrolysis of hydrochloric acid, etc.) are 
best performed by the teacher. (No teacher should fail to read 
Hofmann's admirable Lectures on Modern Chemistry, 1865.) The 
line of thought to be developed in connection with the experiments 
performed by the teacher and by the pupil is well given (pp. 1-9) 
in the Harvard Requirements in Chemistry by Professor Eichards. 

"The theories and principles must be presented inductively. They 
should not be stated as dogmas, or as if they were part of the facts. 
They should be held in reserve until some accumulated facts 
demand explanation and correlation. Facts incapable of correla- 
tion should be avoided as far as possible. On the other hand, 
explanations by the handy affinity idea are worse than useless, as 
they are generally pure nonsense. When symbols and formulas 
are first introduced, special care must be taken to show how they are 
derived from quantitative measurements. The pupil's own observa- 
tions and other examples must be used to show how the formulas 
and finally the equations, are reached as expressions of quantitative 
relations. The whole process of determining the proportions by 
weight and constructing the formulae and equations must be done or 
described in connection with every chemical change, until the pupil 
is thoroughly familiar with the operation and the exact significance 
of the equation is perfectly clear (cf. Harvard pamphlet already 
mentioned (p. 24) on this point). Formula? must on no account be 
used before this can be done, as otherwise they will inevitably appear 
to be the source of information instead of the receptacle for it. All 
"exercises in writing equations" and rules for constructing them, 
as if they were mathematical expressions, must be rigidly excluded 
as fantastic and misleading. The misuse to which equations have 
been put has led to their omission or prolonged postponement by 
6ome teachers. Their introduction at an early stage can do no pos- 
sible harm, provided the laboratory work contains exercises specifi- 



Chemistry. 75 

cally intended to illustrate the way in which the facts recorded in 
the equations are ascertained and the manner in which the equations 
are constructed from these facts. The atomic theory should not be 
introduced until after this experimental foundation of the equation 
is thoroughly familiar. The equation has no necessary connection 
with this theory. The teacher will derive valuable hints in regard 
to method from Perkin and Lean's Introduction to Chemistry. 

"Library. — Interest in the study should be fostered by providing 
a small library. The use of this will counteract the idea which the 
pupil may possible receive that the text-book employed in the class 
is a "complete" treatise. It should contain some more advanced 
works, as well as some of a more popular nature. 

"in. subject-matter. 

"The following outline includes only the indispensable things 
which must be studied in the class-room and laboratory. The mate- 
rial is, for the most part, common to all elementary text-books and 
laboratory manuals. Each book makes its own selection of facts 
beyond this which may be necessary for the illustration of the prin- 
ciples of the science. The order of presentation will naturally be 
determined by each teacher for himself. 

"Outline. — The chief physical and chemical characteristics, the 
preparation and the recognition of the following elements and their 
chief compounds: oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, chlorine, 
bromine, iodine, fluorine, sulphur, phosphorus, silicon, potassium, 
sodium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, mercury, silver, alumin- 
ium, lead, tin, iron, manganese, chromium. 

"More detailed study should be confined to the italicized elements 
(as such) and to a restricted list of compounds, such as: water, 
hydrochloric acid, carbon-monoxide, carbon-dioxide, nitric acid, 
ammonia, sulphur-dioxide, sulphuric acid, hydrogen-sulphide, 
sodium-hydroxide. 

"Attention should be given to the atmosphere (constitution and 
relation to animal and vegetable life), flames, acids, bases, salts, 
oxidation and reduction, crystallization, manufacturing processes, 
familiar substances (illuminating gas, explosives, baking powder, 
mortar, glass, metallurgy, steel, common alloys, porcelain, soap). 

"Combining proportions by weight and volume; calculations 
founded on these and Boyle's and Charles's laws; symbols and 
nomenclature (with careful avoidance of special stress, since these 
are non-essential) ; atomic theory, atomic weights and valency in a 



76 Teaching in High Schools. 

very elementary way; nascent state; natural grouping of the ele- 
ments; solution (solvents and solubility of gases, liquids, and solids, 
saturation); ionization; mass action and equilibrium; strength 
(^activity) of acids and bases; conservatism and dissipation of 
energy; chemical energy (very elementary) ; electrolysis. Chemical 
terms should be defined and explained, and the pupil should be able 
to illustrate and apply the ideas they embody. The theoretical 
topics are not intended to form separate subjects of study, but to 
be taught only so far as is necessary for the correlation and expla- 
nation of the experimental facts. 

"The facts should be given as examples from various classes, and 
not as isolated things. Thus to speak of a "standard method of 
preparing hydrogen," whereby the action of zinc on hydrochloric 
acid is meant, shows narrow and infertile teaching. It should be 
shown that all acids are acted upon by a certain class of metals to 
produce hydrogen. Examples of both classes of metals should be 
given and the general principles derived. The reason for using 
zinc and hydrochloric acid in the laboratory can then be stated. 

"IV. EQUIPMENT. 

"Chemistry cannot be taught satisfactorily without a proper lab- 
oratory and a sufficient supply of apparatus. The former should 
contain desks, with gas and water connections, bottle racks, and 
well-ventilated hoods. Each pupil should have his own set of 
apparatus. 

"In view of the prevailing idea that quantitative experiments 
require expensive apparatus, it may be mentioned that a balance 
with case (Becker No. 31) — costing, when imported duty-free, $15 
— and weights ($1.25) will amply suffice, and some teachers secure 
good results by giving each pupil ordinary hand-scales, costing less 
than $1.50. There should be one balance to every six pupils work- 
ing at one time. In addition to this the following will be required : 

"Barometer; thermometers; burettes, two for four pupils at 
least; porcelain crucibles for each student; bottle for aspirator (one 
liter) for each student. 

"Most of the apparatus for demonstration can be made by the 
teacher by use of the blowpipe, some glass tubing of various sizes, 
and a few pieces of thin platinum wire. 

"It may not be out of place to add that a teacher competent to 
instruct a class after the fashion indicated here must have had con- 
siderable training; in the several branches of the sciences. His 



Chemistry. 77 

minimum equipment will be: physics (one year), general chem- 
istry (one year), qualitative analysis (two terms; one term = twelve 
weeks), quantitative analysis (one term), theoretical chemistry 
(one term), organic chemistry (one term), some acquaintance with 
the history of the science, and familiarity with all the chief books 
suitable as works of reference in connection with such a course, and 
all the text-books for secondary-school chemistry." 

Of first importance is the qualifications of the teacher, next ade- 
quate laboratory equipment, and lastly a modern text-book, among 
which may be mentioned: 

Eemsen's An Introduction to the Study of Chemistry (Henry 
Holt & Co.) ; Newell's Descriptive Chemistry with Experiments 
(D. C. Heath & Co.) ; Hessler-Smith's Essentials of Chemistry 
(Benj. H. Sanborn & Co.). 

Under no circumstances should the teacher become enslaved to 
any one text-book. He should make it his business to be familiar 
with the literature of chemistry, especially as much thereof as may 
be serviceable in the work undertaken by him; and he should also 
feel it his duty to adopt a new text-book when in his opinion his 
work can be made more efficient by so doing. 

H. W. Harper, 
Professor of Chemistry. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

The Physical Geography offered to absolve an entrance require- 
ment of the University should be something more than the mem- 
orizing of a text — it should include a personal familiarity with 
maps and map-drawing and an ability to recognize and explain 
the more common phenomena with which we are brought in daily 
contact. There is no school so situated that geographic observa- 
tions are not within reach of the student. The action of water upon 
land surfaces can be studied, if only in the temporary rills formed 
by the falling rains; atmospheric currents — winds — and weather 
permit of constant observation, and, if instrumental, as with the 
vane, thermometer and barometer, so much the better. The study 
of clouds is a topic of never failing interest. In the more rugged 
portions of our country the decay of rocks may be noted and the 
physical agents that assist in or promote decay studied. On the 
other hand, the resistance of solid rocks or hard layers to stream- 
wear, with the formation of cascades and water-falls, affords a 
fruitful subject for investigation, even if exemplified in the way- 
side ditch. Then, too, much can be learned by a study of the 
changes wrought by storms — the effects of wind-action and of wave- 
action, especially when of a violent character, as seen in cloud- 
bursts, tornadoes, etc. There is no study more suggestive to the 
thoughtful mind than Physical Geography, the problems are so 
varied and interesting, changing with each locality: thus wave- 
action may be studied by those living on the coast or near 
ponds and lakes; cliff-disintegration by those living in mountain- 
ous regions; the relations of plant life to the underlying rocks by 
those inhabiting a region of varying geological formations. 

These hmits are thrown out that the teacher as well as the candi- 
date may understand that the ability to observe and reason for him- 
self is the goal sought rather than the ability to repeat that written 
by another in a text-book. 

Again, in order to understand physical geography well there must 
be a complete understanding of maps, not only of what they repre- 
sent, but of how they are made. For illustrative purposes, a few 
inexpensive materials will suffice — a compass, a measuring rod or 
tape, a ruler, and a sheet of paper for plotting. In making a 
refined map refined methods must be employed, but in laboratory 



Physical Geography. 79 

instruction, of an elementary kind, principles are to be dwelt upon, 
not elaboration. Moreover, there must be developed in the student 
an ability to interpret the map so that it shall become something 
more than a mere plan upon paper, and especially ought this to be 
true of the modern contour map, which should become a picture 
with its topographic forms — its hills and valleys, its lakes and 
mountains — so brought out as to form a clear and distinct impres- 
sion. In these days of cheap photographs, correct representation 
of the relief of almost any region may be placed in the hands of a 
student at a trifling cost. As a further aid in study excellent con- 
tour maps may be obtained from the Director of the United States 
Geological Survey at a slight expense. 

In well-equipped schools additional facilities may be afforded by 
models showing different types of relief and by relief globes. From 
them various sketches and drawing may be made which will afford 
practice of substantial value. 

As will be inferred from that written above, much will depend 
upon the ingenuity of the teacher who should see to it that topics 
adapted to the local surroundings are assigned to the student, and 
that they are as carefully and as faithfully worked up as tasks 
assigned in mathematics, English, or any subject which requires 
thought. 

That there are subjects in Physical Geography which cannot as 
yet be well taught in the modern way — laboratory method — is 
admitted. While this defect may be partially overcome by the use 
of models it cannot be entirely remedied. But, though the text 
must be committed in siieh cases, abundant opportunities are still 
offered everywhere to illustrate most amply the value of study at 
first hand. 

The teacher should insist upon precision and neatness in the 
work. The notes .should be carefully taken and elaborated, and 
drawings and diagrams should be required wherever they are 
needed for the sake of clearness either in recording observations or 
in making explanations. Slovenly work ought not to be tolerated, 
and hasty work is usually defective. Care and patience, — this is 
the key to the situation — without them the best results cannot be 
attained. When a science, such as Physical Geography, is offered 
to fulfill an entrance requirement to the University it must have 
been scientifically taught and scientifically studied to the end that 
the phenomena experienced by the student in an objective way may 



80 Teaching in High Schools. 

be accurately observed and explained by close and connected reason- 
ing. 

For a text one of the following books is recommended : Davis's 
Elementary Physical Geography (Boston, Ginn and Company), Gil- 
bert and Brigham's An Introduction to Physical Geography (New 
York, D. Appleton & Co.), and Tarr's New Physical Geography 
(New York, The Macmillan Company). 

Frederic W. Simonds, 
Professor of Geology. 



PHYSICS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

During the past twenty years the study of Physics has undergone 
a remarkable evolution in institutions of every grade. Following 
the marvelous development of scientific activities in their relation to 
the every day work of the world, which has characterized the present 
as the age of science, has come a widespread demand for the recog- 
nition of its prime factors in every modern system of education. 

In consequence of this demand and the resulting reorganization 
of educational curricula in accordance with new ideals, Physics has 
advanced from a wholly subordinate position to one of real promi- 
nence until today it stands on a par with all other subjects as a vital 
factor in every educational system. This advance, moreover, has 
not been confined to the colleges and universities, but, in fact, its 
greatest vigor has been manifested in the high schools. It is but a 
few years since, in recognition of a definite need of the time, the so- 
called "Committee of Ten," appointed by the National Educational 
Association, made its famous report advocating a rational method 
of teaching Physics and stating the general principles which should 
govern it. Nevertheless, in the brief time that has since elapsed, the 
spread of the ideas then advanced has been so rapid and the results 
secured have been so widely appreciated that in the older states, at 
least, there is scarcely to be found a high school in which Physics is 
not taught in accordance with what are now everywhere recognized 
as sound pedagogical principles. 

It is true that the study has been stimulated by its inclusion 
among the subjects recognized in college entrance requirements, 
but, on the other hand, it has come to occupy a place of its own by 
reason of its value to that large proportion of high school pupils 
who acquire no further scholastic training. Again, while it is true 
that, in their inception, the new methods of teaching this subject 
were conceived and promulgated by colleges and universities and 
their early development in the high schools guided and directed 
by them, it is a striking fact that the achievements of recent years 
in methods and practices have come through the efforts of a host of 
brilliant teachers who, in the high schools, have put all things to 
the test of actual experience and have clearly shown the way by 
which alone can success be attained. 

Not only, therefore, because of the fact that Physics may be 



82 Teaching in High Schools. 

offered as fulfilling an entrance requirement to the University of 
Texas, but because of its marked value as a factor in the education 
of any and all high school pupils, it has seemed proper to set forth 
those methods of instruction which actual experience has shown 
should everywhere be followed. So, in considering the requirements 
for "affiliation" in Physics or for entrance to the University which 
are presented in the following pages, it should be borne in mind 
that the University is not seeking to inculcate any unusual or un- 
tried methods of teaching. Eather it is endeavoring to encourage the 
development of those which, from the standpoint of the interests of 
the high school and all the pupils taught therein, will lead to the 
best mental discipline and contribute, so far as lies within the 
province of any one subject, to that culture which was defined by 
Mathew Arnold as "knowing one's self and the world." 

CHARACTER OF THE COURSE. 

In the first place, then, a high school course in Physics should 
be continuous and thorough, occupying at least five school periods 
of forty-five minutes each, per week, throughout the year. The 
subject is too difficult and extensive to allow of any adequate 
presentation under any other conditions. From the earliest times, 
the most brilliant of scientists, trained by the severest mental dis- 
cipline, versed in higher mathematics and in full command of the 
vast accumulations of experimental facts and explanatory theories, 
have devoted themselves to the task of wresting from nature the laws 
and principles that govern natural phenomena and of reducing 
them to a system in which fact and theory blend into a harmonious 
whole. It is absurd, therefore, to believe that the beginner in the 
subject, with untrained powers of mind and without skill in obser- 
vation, can acquire in any brief time a substantial knowledge 
of even the elements of the subject. It is no less absurd than 
to consider it possible to cover the entire field of mathematics in 
a popularly presented course of a few weeks' duration. One great 
mistake made at present in every educational scheme is that we 
try to teach too many subjects, and the result is a dabbling in va- 
rious branches that is in no way calculated to fit boys and girls for 
any work in the world. Properly viewed, the aims of education are 
two-fold : in the first place, so to set forth the principles underlying 
any subject and to illustrate them by examples from actual expe- 
rience or practice, so to separate the important from the incidental, 
so to discriminate relations and facts, that the student may be ena- 



Physics. 83 

bled to grasp the real meaning of the subject, note its possible and 
far-reaching applications, and learn how the material, moral, and 
spiritual forces in the universe have through means of it been 
made to work for the advancement of all mankind; in the second 
place, and most important, so to train the powers of acquisition 
and inquisition that one may be "able to clearly observe conditions 
and phenomena; to compare, contrast, and classify them; to dis- 
criminate relations and facts; to reason from the known to the 
unknown; to judge conclusions; to use the hands and senses with 
promptness and skill; to express facts and relations with clearness, 
conciseness and precision ;" and, finally, in attacking any problem in 
practical life to make use of that body of information which is 
contained in books and treatises and which alone is trustworthy. 

Considered from this standpoint, brief or so-called "popular" 
courses are an educational crime, since they give neither informa- 
tion nor mental discipline. To avoid the difficulties inherent in 
any subject results in misconceptions of the matter involved, to a 
loss of the power of concentration and to the stagnation of the 
beginnings of creative thought which are manifest in the mental 
operations of nearly every child. Much is to be gained from the 
struggle with that which is uncongenial, for the result is a 
strengthening of fibers and faculties that otherwise might become 
atrophied or useless. That various branches of knowledge, when 
rightly presented, are of value as ministering to the needs of 
diverse minds is true; but it is distinctly false that any hetero- 
geneous mixture of trivialities can afford the same training as a 
fully developed subject, the mastery of which requires continued 
and close application. When this fact is lost sight of, the drama 
of education all too frequently degenerates into a comedy, or 
even a tragedy, of errors. 

The foregoing may seem in a measure apart from the purpose 
of this article, nevertheless it has seemed proper to consider the 
general principles that should govern any grade of educational 
work since by reason of a failure to appreciate them, the study of 
Physics has been too often so placed in the school curriculum and 
taught in such a manner as to be a serious detriment to the pupil. 

METHODS OF TEACHING AND DISTRIBUTION OF TIME. 

Here the results of actual experience furnish the surest guide. 
There exists a consensus of opinion among all leading teachers in 



84 Teaching in High Schools. 

the high schools, colleges, and universities that the purposes in view 
can best he subserved by a combination of class-room instruction 
and individual laboratory practice. 

There is an equal agreement with the opinion that, of the five 
periods a week devoted to the course, three" periods should be given 
to class-room instruction and two to laboratory exercises. Since 
the student need make no special preparation for these exercises, 
beyond reading over carefully the directions to be followed, it is 
strongly recommended that the time devoted to them be increased 
to two consecutive periods on two days of the week, thus giving 
four periods to laboratory work. This can be easily accomplished 
by such an arrangement of the schedule as will give a study period 
preceding the recitation period, the same to be added to the labor- 
atory period on the days when laboratory instruction is given. So 
much time is required for the adjustment of the apparatus and 
the recording of notes and observations on the experiments that it 
is difficult to accomplish any work of real value in a single 
period. Moreover, it is found that, far from proving a strain upon 
the student, the use of the two periods in laboratory practice cre- 
ates a greater interest in the work and prevents it from degenerat- 
ing into a sort of kindergarten exercise. 

CLASS-ROOM INSTRUCTION. 

General Character. 

The aim of the instruction should be not only the teaching of 
certain facts, but also the acquisition on the part of the student of 
the ability to connect the principles studied with the applications 
of plwsical laws that are met with in every day life. The state- 
ments of the text-book should be considered as the framework of 
the subject and not the entire sum and substance. Merely assign- 
ing a lesson one day and hearing the scholars blunder through 
it the next is not the kind of instruction that makes every student 
a thinker. However well a school book may be planned it is, 
after all, a book of texts that require continued application, ex- 
planation and illustration. Herein lies the real art of teaching 
and here the training, personality and enthusiasm of the teacher 
are the elements of success, forming a leaven that converts dry 
and apparently useless material into palatable and stimulating 
mental food. 



Physics. 85 

The Text Bool: 

Since, however, the framework furnished by the text should be 
substantial and properly connected, the character of the book is all 
important. Here all that has been said concerning brief and easy 
courses applies with particular emphasis. It is a positive disgrace 
to the profession of teaching that, when there are text-books of great 
merit, written not by theorists but by practical high-school teachers, 
and taught today in hundreds even thousands of high schools, 
the books most widely used in the State of Texas are those that pro- 
fess to give in a few short weeks an adequate knowledge of the 
subject. It is true that, when the course covers, as it well may, 
two years, it is wise to begin with a good but elementary text 
adapted to the age and mental development of the pupils, and to 
follow this in the second year with a manual of recognized value. 
But, on the other hand, when in a course of one year's duration 
a trivial text is used, one is forced to consider it a confession of 
ignorance on the part of the teacher, both of the meaning of edu- 
cation and of the subject matter to be studied. 

The following text-books are strongly recommended as sound in 

theory and practice and all that is required for thorough instruc- 
tion: 

Carhart and Chute's High School Physics, Allyn & Bacon. 

Crew's Elements of Physics, The Macmillan Co. 

Andrews and Howland's Elements of Physics, The Macmillan 
Co. 

Avery's Elements of Natural Philosophy, Sheldon & Co. 

Recitations and Lectures. 

In the classroom, the advantages of both lectures and recitations 
should be combined, frequent illustrations being necessary in order 
to impart correct ideas. For this purpose, simple apparatus, large- 
ly home made, is desirable as best calculated to stimulate the in- 
terest which leads to independent thought and study. Highly fin- 
ished and expensive apparatus is not only unessential, but it often 
distracts the student's attention from the purposes of the illustra- 
tion and leads him to conclude that polished brass and mahogany 
are requisites to successful experimenting. Properly arranged ex- 
periments will illustrate the principles involved and also teach the 
scholar, in the study of physical phenomena, to secure compliance 
with the essential factors regardless of external appearances. For- 
tunately, such necessary apparatus as can not be easily constructed 



86 Teaching in High Schools. 

by the teacher and scholars can be purchased at very reasonable 
prices from several makers, the equipment of high schools having 
created a demand for apparatus which, while simple, is accurate 
and satisfactory. 

Quizzes. 

In the conducting of the recitations, aside from necessary illus- 
trations and explanations, the method of cross-examination, or 
quiz, has distinct advantages. As stated by a prominent teacher in 
a recent article : "It compels the student to examine the grounds 
for his opinions and test the logical correctness of his thought pro- 
cesses so as to eliminate unwarranted assumptions, hasty induc- 
tions and false steps in deductions. The teacher should keep the 
minds moving rapidly, but not so fast that they can not hold the 
pace. When a student makes a hasty induction he should be com- 
pelled to check it by a further examination of the observed facts 
and previously established theory. When he makes careless deduc- 
tions he should be thrown back upon himself in order to make him 
prove his steps. In effect the quiz should be constructive not de- 
structive, positive not negative." 

Again, frequent quizzes or examinations are valuable to the 
teacher, as well as the scholar, as affording much information 
concerning the work of the class and the various questions which 
require further explanation and consideration. In fact the 
teacher, as well as the pupil, must be constantly a learner, if 
not in regard to the subject matter itself, at least concerning the 
method of its presentation, and, when properly considered, the 
written work of the student is a mine of information in this re- 
gard. 

Numerical Problems. 

Special emphasis should be placed upon the solution of numer- 
ical problems without which the training is sure to prove super- 
ficial and inaccurate. It is desirable to assign at least four prob- 
lems at each recitation, the solutions to be handed in at the next 
exercise, to be corrected and returned later. One of the problems 
should refer to some portion of the text studied at an earlier date, 
constant review work being essential. Much time will be saved 
in the correction of these exercises if the scholars be compelled 
to present the solutions neatly done on paper of uniform size. The 
corrected problems, if preserved, will prove of distinct advantage 
to the student in any further work in the subject. 



Physics. 8? 

Training in English. 

In every case, whether it be in the oral recitation or in the writ- 
ten work, the student should be required to use good English and 
to express himself clearly and accurately. It is a common and well 
founded criticism that scientific or technical students are lament- 
ably weak in the handling of their mother tongue. While it is 
true that the student of the classics or the modern languages has 
a distinct advantage in this respect through his constant study 
of linguistics and exercises in translation, and that we may rea- 
sonably expect of him a higher standard of literary expression, there 
is, on the other hand, no excuse for the use of bad grammar and 
poorly constructed sentences on the part of the student of science. 
Certainly any disparity in the degree of training in English afforded 
by the subject itself should be compensated for, as far as possible, 
by the placing of emphasis on this part of the instruction. 

LABORATORY PRACTICE. 

Its Character. 

Since a proper understanding of the subject can not be acquired 
without individual laboratory practice, especial attention should be 
given to the development of this portion of the course. In fact lab- 
oratory work is a sine qua non. No amount of careful class-room 
work can compensate for the lapk of it and where prevailing condi- 
tions will not allow of its introduction the entire subject had best be 
cut out of the curriculum. 

It is not sufficient for the teacher to perform the experiment be- 
fore the class and the student to copy the data furnished him and 
to deduce or verify the principle involved. The real value of lab- 
oratory work is only secured when the student performs the experi- 
ment himself, obtaining and classifying all data and with the least 
possible assistance. It may, indeed, be necessary, during the first 
few weeks or months of the course, for the teacher to first perform 
the experiment rapidly before the class, calling attention to its 
object, the reasons for the method used and any difficulties to be 
encountered but, as rapidly as possible, the student should be en- 
couraged to work independently. 

He should also be made to study the method and laboratory di- 
rections in advance and during the laboratory period to rely upon 
the text as little as possible. Unless care is taken, the scholars soon 
fall into the habit of blindly following the manual and recording 



88 Teaching in High Schools. 

results, without making the effort necessary for the understanding 
of the sequence of the phenomena or the aim of the observations. 
Constant oversight and questioning of the individual is the only 
safeguard and is well worth, the effort. 

The Exercises. 

Laboratory exercises should be chosen with particular care, since 
upon their character largely depends the success or failure of the 
course. In general, each exercise should possess certain character- 
istics. "First, it should compel close observation and discrimina- 
tion and develop in the experimenter some skill and self-reliance. 
Second, it ought to contain the basis for the development of a gen- 
eralization or it should verify a principle already deduced. Third, 
the reasoning involved in reaching the conclusion must be simple 
and direct enough to be made by the student himself with very 
little assistance. Fourth, and most important, it must be distinctly 
quantitative in character and susceptible of a reasonable degree 
of accuracy." There is no reason for giving simple qualitative ex- 
periments which "merely illustrate, if they illustrate anything, 
principles with which the twelve year old boy has for some time 
been more or less familiar. It is undesirable to insult the intelli- 
gence of the boy even though he may not be able to return the 
compliment. The following is an example of the type referred to : 

Experiment : Carefully examine your pencil ; drop it on the 
floor ; pick it up. Has it suffered any change ?" 

This example may seem to be an isolated and exaggerated 
one, and yet an examination of the notebooks submitted to 
the University during the past two years shows the presence therein 
of some, at least, of this kind of trash, trash because it is wholly 
without educational value. Good qualitative experiments have a 
place, but it is in the class room and not the laboratory. 

Fortunately, there are at present several well known manuals, the 
exercises in which are thoroughly practical, of definite value and 
have stood the test of years of trial. While it is always well for 
the teacher to develop the ideas which come to him through ex- 
perience in the laboratory it is certainly wise for the beginner to 
confine himself to these experiments which are known to be sound 
in theory and practice. 

Among sUch manuals are the following and it is earnestly rec- 
ommended that one of these be chosen as the laboratory text-book. 

Stone's Experimental Physics, Ginn & Co. 



Physics. 89 

Allen's Laboratory Physics, Henry Holt & Co. 

Crew & Tatnall's Laboratory Manual of Physics, The Maemillan 
Co. 

Cheston, Dean and Timmerman's Laboratory Manual of Physics, 
American Book Co. 

Chute's Physical Laboratory Manual, D. C. Heath & Co. 

In Exhibit A appended to this article will be found a list of 
sixty experiments of standard excellence, the thirty-five of these 
which are considered most valuable being marked with an asterisk. 

For the preparation of this list and that in Exhibit B following, 
the writer is indebted to Mr. J. M. Ivuehne, Instructor in Physics 
in the University. 

The Note-Bool. 

Special attention should be given to the notebook since it also 
is an important factor and of marked educational value to the stu- 
dent. "It compels him to put in writing the thoughts that are in 
his mind ; it aids him to a clearer expression of thought ; it trains 
him with increasing thoroughness in composition; it impresses 
more firmly upon his mind the facts he has learned in the develop- 
ment of the experiment; it enables him to acquire more systematic 
methods of doing things, and, as the notebook should never, save 
on race occasions, be taken from the laboratory, it teaches him to do 
things now and not to wait until tomorrow or some other convenient 
time." "To these ends it must be insisted that the notes should be 
neatly written, clear, concise and simple, containing only that which 
is necessary to make them complete and, finally, as nearly correct as 
the manual skill and mental caliber of the student will permit." 

More specifically, the notebook should contain a concise state- 
ment of : 

(a) The problem to be solved, with reference to page of manual 
used. 

(b) Apparatus used. 

(c) Necessary formulas and computations. 

(d) Observed results, together with such inferences as the pupil 
may be reasonably expected to draw. 

Apparatus. 

While, from the point of view of individual work, the ideal 
method is to provide for each experiment sufficient apparatus to 
supply the entire class working separately, considerations of ex- 



90 Teaching in High Schools. 

pense preclude it in the majority of cases. Moreover, practically 
as good results can be gotten if the students work in pairs and two 
experiments are alternated. Vigilance, however, must be exer- 
cised to prevent the lazy student from depending upon a more 
efficient partner and thus failing to derive any benefit from the 
exercise. 

In Exhibit B is given a list of apparatus necessary to conduct 
a class of twelve students through the thirty-five experiments be- 
fore mentioned. This list can be purchased complete from any 
one of several concerns that make a specialty of school apparatus, 
at a cost of less than $85. 

Since, however, the experience of the "affiliated high schools" has 
shown that at least forty-five exercises can easily be completed the 
list of apparatus purchased should not be limited to this amount, 
but should be as extensive as possible. This estimate is given merely 
to show that it is possible at small expense to make a good beginning 
in the direction of thorough instruction. 

It is understood that in the foregoing estimate no provision has 
been made for apparatus for lecture demonstration which, of course, 
should be provided as rapidly and in as large amount as possible. 
The outlay necessary for this purpose will depend much upon the 
ingenuity of the teacher and his ability to make use of home made 
apparatus which, as before noted, is often far more valuable than 
any that can be purchased. 

Then, too, the estimate does not include the expense of fitting the 
laboratory with desks, tables, cases, shelves, etc., the cost of which 
will depend much upon the size of the rooms assigned for the pur- 
pose and to local conditions. 

Among the concerns supplying school apparatus may be men- 
tioned the following : 

L. E. Knott Apparatus Co., No. 16 Ashburton Place, Boston, 
Mass. 

C. H. Stoelting Co., 31 W. Eandolph Street, Chicago, 111. 

Central Scientific Co., 14 Michigan Street, Chicago, 111. 

For several years the University has made large purchases from 
the first named and has found their apparatus of most excellent 
quality, their prices reasonable, and their methods of business hon- 
orable. In any case, it is suggested that the school intending to 
purchase apparatus should submit a list of the articles desired to 
several firms and request bids on the same with freight paid to des- 
tination. 



Physics. 91 

The Laboratory. 

As in the college or university, in every case, when feasible, a 
separate room, and that as large as possible, should be set aside 
as a laboratory. Such a room will not only be convenient and well 
adapted to teaching purposes, but will prove a source of pride to the 
students and to the community and encourage a continual advance- 
ment in the direction of high grade instruction in all the natural 
sciences. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE COURSE. 

While, as has been stated, it is possible to begin the teaching of 
Physics with but a small expenditure, it should be clearly recognized 
that it is merely a beginning and that continual progress is neces- 
sary. It was a wise man who said that "To be as good as our fath- 
ers we must be better. Imitation is not discipleship." The educa- 
tion of yesterday must not be that of today, or of today that of to- 
morrow. True of all subjects of value, it is especially true of nat- 
ural science instruction, in which we must continually take cog- 
nizance of new ideas and discoveries. Progress in the teaching 
of Physics demands a steady increase in the facilities for instruction 
and the early adoption of a plan for the development of the course, 
to be consistently followed year after year. 

Too much emphasis, therefore, cannot be placed upon the ne- 
cessity for yearly appropriations for the purchase of apparatus and 
equipment since only in this way can the instruction be brought 
to the proper standard and there maintained. These appropriations 
need not be large, but they should be as much a recognized part of 
the annual budget as the teacher's salary. This procedure will not 
only build up a course of instruction of increasing strength and 
value, but it will stimulate both teacher and pupil with fresh interest 
in the subject and prove in the end the most economical of money, 
time and energy. 

THE TEACHER. 

Such a course as that outlined in the foregoing pages requires 
ceaseless effort on the part of the teacher and the continual use of 
every faculty. To properly conduct recitations and illustrate them 
by means of carefully chosen experiments, to examine and grade 
numerous examination and problem papers, to conduct laboratory 
classes and prepare the experiments for the same, to care for the 
apparatus and construct new pieces, all this is not an easy task. 



92 Teaching in High Schools. 

As President Dabney has said, "It is certainly true that to give 
good instruction in the sciences requires more work of the teacher 
than to give good instruction in mathematics, the languages, etc." 
The mere manual labor that is required is an item of no small con- 
sequence. It is, therefore, essential that in the arrangement of the 
school schedule these facts should be taken into consideration, for 
otherwise good work is absolutely impossible. 

One fact remains to be emphasized, namely, that, save in rare 
instances, it is not practicable for one to attempt to conduct a 
course thus outlined when the only instruction that the teacher 
has received is of the grade required for a permanent State teacher's 
certificate. This may appear to be a plea for the employment of 
University graduates but in reality it is not the case. The fact 
remains that the developments of physical science and the methods 
of teaching it have been and continue to be so rapid, involving 
so much detailed knowledge and experience, that it is not practi- 
cable or desirable to demand of every teacher specific training in 
these directions. It is, however, perfectly feasible for any teacher 
of ability to secure the proper training through Summer School 
courses in the Universities of Texas, Chicago and other institutions 
of equal rank and it is, I believe, the duty of every School Board 
to insist that the teacher of Physics shall have received this amount 
of preparation for his chosen work. 

AFFILIATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY. 

During the past few years a number of high schools have been 
affiliated with the University in Physics and many more are arrang- 
ing their courses with this in view. For the consideration, there- 
fore, of these schools a brief statement may be made of the condi- 
tions which should be met. 

In order to secure affiliation it is necessary for the high school to 
conduct a course of the character outlined in the foregoing. More 
specifically, the requirements are as follows : 

1. Five school periods, of at least forty-five minutes each, a 
week, throughout the school year, shall be devoted to the subject. 
At least two periods shall be given to laboratory practice and three 
to class-room exercises. 

2. A high grade text-book shall be used. 

3. Numerical problems shall be assigned for solution outside 
the class room. 



Physics. 93 

4. Individual laboratory practice shall be given and there shall 
be sufficient apparatus to allow of the students working in pairs. 

At least thirty-five laboratory exercises, taken from the list given 
in Exhibit A, shall be completed during the year. 

The students shall take careful notes on the experiments in a 
suitable note book. 

Should they desire to enter the University and secure credit in 
Physics they must present these note books when the application 
for credit is made and especial weight will be given to them in esti- 
mating the character of the work done by the school. 

W. T. Mather, 
Associate Professor of Physics. 



94 



Teaching in High Schools. 



EXHIBIT A. 



List of Experiments in Physics. 







j 






a! - 






01 C 




<x> 
to 




6*- 

Si 


a 


gfe£ 


< 





a d 
OH 



*1 
*2 



•6 



9 
*10 

11 
*12 

13 

14 
•15 
♦16 
17 
18 
♦19 
•20 
*21 



*22 
23 

*24 
•25 



*26 
•27 
*28 

29 
*30 

31 
*32 

33 
*34 
*35 
*36 

37 

*38 

•39 

*40 

41 

42 

*43 

44 

45 
*46 
*47 

48 

49 



Mechanics and Hydrostatics. 



regular 



Measurement of the volume of 
body 

Volume of an irregular body by displace- 
ment 

Mass of unit volume (density) of a sub- 
stance 

Pressure due to weight of liquids 

Lifting effect of water on a solid entirely 
immersed in it (Archimedes principle) 

Specific gravity of a solid that will sink in 
water 

S. G. of wood by means of sinker 

S. G. of a liquid by the S. G. bottle 

S. G. of a liquid by its buoyant action 

S. G. of a liquid by balancing columns 

S. G. of air 

Boyle's Law 

Pressure of the atmosphere (Torricelli's 
Exp.) 

Laws of accellerated motion 

Law of the parallelogram of forces 

Parallel forces 

Coefficient of friction 

Action and reaction, elastic collision 

Law of the inclined plane 

Mechanical advantage of the pulley 

Laws of the pendulum 



Sound. 



Velocity of sound in air 

Number of vibrations of a tuning fork 

Wave length of sound by resonance tube. 
Laws of vibration of a stretched string 



Heat. 



Testing a mercurial thermometer 

Linear expansion of a solid 

Maximum density of water 

Expansion of. air at constant pressure 

Determination of melting points 

Determination of boiling point 

Determination of the dew point 

Laws of cooling 

Test of the "method of mixture" 

Specific heat of a solid 

Latent heat of melting ice 

Latent heat of vaporization of water 

Light. 

Law of intensity of illumination 

Laws of reflection from a plane mirror 

Images in a plane mirror 

Images in a convex cylindrical mirror 

Images in a concave cylindrical mirror 

Index of refraction of glass.^. 

Path of ray, and index of refraction, for 

glass prism 

Index of refraction of water 

Focal length of a converging lens... 

Conjugate foci of a converging lens 

Shape and size of real image formed by 

lens 

Virtual image formed by a lens 



17 



13 
9 
11 
12 
24, 25 
26 
28 

21, 22 



109 
103-5 
110 
113 
111 



69-71 



72 

77 

78 

79-81 



95 
96 
97 

100 
101-2 



74 



103 
136 
107 



160 
166 
156 
(177 
169 



174 



203 
201 



117 

138 



146 
125 
126 



124 
128 
188 

195 



119 
119 



12 



21 
15 

26, 27 
25 
22 
20 

23, 24 



37 



43 



51 



40 

46 

48 
.„.„.. 

"54" 
"44" 

41 
34 
30 
36 



39 
37 

3. c , 



58 

63 



fir, 
r, fi 

67 



61 



70 
73 

74 

115 

117 
119 



127 
126 
130 
128.. 

134 
134 



Exhibit A. 



95 



EXHIBIT A— continued. 



List of experiments in Physics. 






• F o 
o S^ 

OH H 



3 D, 

OH 



*50 
*51 

*52 
53 

•54 
55 

*56 
57 
58 
59 
60 



Electricity and Magnetism. 



Lines of force about a magnet 

Lines of force surrounding a conductor 

through which a current is passing 

Action of a current on a magnet 

Lines of force surrounding a coil of wire 

carrying a current 

Study of a single-fluid cell 

Study of a two-fluid cell 

Resistance, by substitution 

Resistance, by Wheatstone Bridge 

Resistance of conductors in parallel 

Study of electric bell and telegraph 

Study of induced currents 



29, 131 

136 
137 

138 

139-41 

142 



12 



53, 54 



57 



NO 



99 

(84) 



89 
90 



100, 101 



NOTE. — The writer did not have at hand a copy of the excellent manual 
by Crew and Tatnall, hence the omission of the numbered references to 
the same. 



96 



Teaching in High Schools. 



EXHIBIT B. 

Laboratory Apparatus for Physics. 

Estimate' of laboratory apparatus required by a class of twelve students 
for performing the thirty-five experiments marked by an asterisk in Exhibit 
A, one-third of the class working at the same problem, and the students 
working in pairs. 



General apparatus and supplies. 



G> 



12 



25 
26 



30 



32 
34 



Wood meter rods — brass ferrules 

30 cm. wooden scales 

15 or 30 cm. steel metric scale 

Paper m. m. scales 

Rubber tubing, medium weight, % inch 

Rubber tubing, medium weight, 3-16 inch 

Rubber tubing, pressure, y B inch 

Glass tubing, iy 2 inch „ 

Glass tubing, 3-8 inch 

Glass tubing, % inch 

Glass tubing, capillary, assorted 

Insulated copper wire, No. 16 

Insulated copper wire, No. 20 

Spring brass wire, No. 24 or 26 

Wooden cylinders, about 4x6 cm 

Overflow cans 

Catch buckets, for catching water displaced 

Balances, trip scales, or better 

Weights, lg. to 500g 

Bottles, wide mouth, glass stopper 

Apparatus made of one piece small size glass, tubing 
closed at one end, and a larger size tubing open at 
both ends, each about 12 in. long, connected by about 
30 in. rubber pressure tubing, forming a flexible 
U-shaped tube. A meter rod for measuring height or 
mercury in the tubes. 

Mercury 

Spring balances, about 2000g. capac 

Cord, fish line _ 

Meter rods, spring balances (See above). 

Iron weights, up to 2000g 

Straight, smooth boards for inclined plane (made by 
carpenter) 

Spring balances, about 250g. capacity 

Brass single pulleys 

Brass double pulleys _ 

Metal balls, about y 2 in. diam 

Silk thread, A, one spool 

Spy glass '. 

Tuning fork, middle C 

Tuning forks, small, A 

Large size glass tube, open, 10-15 in. long 

Hydrometer jar, to hold water for regulating length 
of air column in above glass tube 

Brass wire, spring balances, tuning forks (See above). 

Thermometers, centigrade scale 

Copper boilers ('Apparatus A.") 

Gasoline blast lamps, for laboratories not furnished 
with gas 

Linear expansion apparatus 

Small wide mouth bottles 

Rubber stoppers, two holes, to admit thermometer and 
small bore glass tubing 

Glass tubes, about 1 mm. bore, 8-10 in. long 

Glass beakers, about 8 oz 

Paraffine 

Small size nickled cans (See catch buckets above) 

Calorimeters, large size for outside 

Calorimeters, small size for inside _ 

Copper shot, lead shot, or pieces of brass or copper wire 

Calorimeters, same as above .,._ 



6 

3 

2 

1 doz 
y 2 lb. 
% lb. 
% lb, 



lb. 

lb. 

lb. 

lb. 

lb. 

lb. 
spool 
4 
2 



2 lb. 
6 



1 set 

2 
2 
2 
2 
2-6 



lb. 



lb. 



$0.30 

.10 
1.00 

.15 doz. 

.80 

.80 

.80 

.60 

.45 

.45 

.75 

.60 

.75 

.30 

.25 

.45 

.20 
6 to 10.00 
1.80 

.10 



.80 
.50 
.25 



1.75 

.15 
.60 
.30 
.40 
.05 
.10 
2.50 
1.25 



.50 

.90 
1.00 

2.25 

2.50 

.05 

.05 



.25 
.40 



.45 
.45 
.30 



Exhibit B. 



97 



EXHIBIT B— continued. 
Laboratory Apparatus for Physics. 



General apparatus and supplies. 



fcS 



38 



Candles (tallow or parafflne) 

Screen of white paper, or ground glass. Lead pencil 

set in a cork to cast the shadow, meter rod 

Plane mirrors, plate glass 

Pins, one paper 

Smooth soft pine boards for drawing board (made by 

carpenter) _ 

Plate glass slab, polished edges 

Convex lenses 

Lens holders to fasten to meter rod 

Screen and pin holders 

Bar magnets - 

Iron filings , 

Compasses, very short needle 

Tumblers, for use as battery jars - 

Zinc and copper strips 

Sulphuric acid 

Daniell cells, large size 

or American primary battery 

Dry batteries, for open circuit work 

Resistance boxes 

Astatic or D'Arsonval galvanometers 



II). 



pr. 
gal. 



.'::< 



.15 
.10 

.10 

.25 

.10 

.20 

.30 

.30 

.15 

.25 

.20 

.10 

.75 
2.00 
2.50 

.35 
8.00 
3 to 7.00 



PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

Mere book-work in Physiology will not absolve the requirement 
in this subject. The candidate must have pursued the study of 
Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene as outlined in Cotton's Physiol- 
ogy,, Experimental and Descriptive, or in Martin's The Human 
Body, Briefer Course, fifth edition, revised by G. W. Fitz, M. D., 
and in addition must have received instruction in the following 
subjects: Air, Water, Food, The Contagia, Communicable Dis- 
eases, Modes of Prevention, as outlined in L. C. Parkes' Practical 
Hygiene, latest edition. 

A notebook containing a complete record of the experiments he 
has performed, and certified by the teacher, must be presented at 
entrance by the candidate. 

The following examination questions will indicate the scope and 
nature of the work in Physiology and Hygiene : 

A. Physiology. 

1. (a) What substances are poured out onto the skin that 
necessitate bathing? (b) Describe in full the organs that pro- 
duce them, (c) Why should soap be used? (d) Why is a 
bland soap to be preferred ? 

2. (a) Show by diagram the anatomical relation of a hair 
follicle to the layers of the skin; the relation of the hair to the 
follicle. (Name the different parts of the diagram.) (b) The 
epidermis at any given place of the skin varies but slightly if at all 
in thickness. Why? 

3. (a) What is a neuron or axis cylinder, a nerve- fiber, a 
nerve, a nerve-center? (b) What is the primary function of a 
nervous system? (c) What is the relative position of the white 
and gray substance of the spinal cord? (d) Of what does the 
white substance consist? The gray? (e) What are the func- 
tions of the spinal cord? 

4. (a) Describe the different corpuscles in the blood and give 
the function of the red corpuscles, (b) Explain the course the 
blood takes in going from the left auricle back to the same place. 

5. Mention where and explain how and in what form oxygen 
enters and leaves (a) arterial blood, (b) venous blood. 

6. (a) What tissue of the human body consumes the largest 



Physiology and Hygiene. 99 

amount of oxygen ? Give the evidence upon which your statement 
is based, (b) How is the heat of the body produced and the nor- 
mal temperature maintained? 

7. Name the glands that secretes substances concerned in diges- 
tion, and give the names of the ferment or ferments of each secre- 
tion. 

8. In what part of the alimentary canal and by what substances 
are the following foods digested: (a) rice (mainly starch), (b) 
meat : 1, the fat of the meat. 2, the muscle portion. 

9. (a) What substances in eggs, peas, and milk make them 
excellent articles of diet? (b) What is the advantage in diges- 
tion of the cellulose of vegetables? 

10. (a) What defects of vision may be remedied by special 
glasses? (b) What dangers may arise from neglecting to wear 
glasses when the imperfections of the eye demand it? 

B. Hygiene. 

1. (a) Name the four most important gaseous constituents of 
the earth's atmosphere, (b) Give the cycle and functions of each 
of the mentioned constituents. 

2. Name in the order of amount consumed (a) of oxygen, (b) 
of air vitiated, by the following when used in equal weights as fuel : 
coal, dry-wood, coke, paraffin; and the following substances when 
used in quantity sufficient to produce an equal amount of light: 
incandescent electric light, gas, paraffin oil, sperm candles, tallow 
candles. 

3. If a room of 1000 cubic feet is occupied for four hours by 
ten persons, each giving off an average amount of carbon dioxide 
(C0 2 ), what will be the total amount of carbon dioxide (C0 2 ) per 
1000 volumes at the end of the time, supposing 10,000 cubic feet 
of fresh air per hour have been supplied ? 

4. (a) Is there any danger to the healthy in cold bathing 
while the body is perspiring freely? (b) What is the indication 
that one apparently drowned may still be restored to life? (c) 
Describe the method adopted by the United States life-saving ser- 
vice for restoring to life apparently drowned persons. 

5. (a) What impurities may rain water contain? Why is it 
so valuable for domestic purposes ? What is the great objection to 
the use of it? (b) What methods may be used in the household 



100 Teaching in High Schools. 

for the purification of water? (c) What is necessary that every 
house filter may be safe for use ? 

6. (I) Explain the "Germ Theory of Disease." Give Koch's 
Dicta. (II) Define (a) Bacteria; (b) Saprophytes; (c) Para- 
sites; (d) Pathogenic micro-organisms. 

7. (a) Why are meat-eaters' teeth less prone to decay than 
the teeth of persons who live upon a diet of starchy foods? (b) 
How does cleansing the tongue aid in the preservation of the teeth? 
(c) How may decay of the teeth be restrained? 

8. Explain the difference between natural immunity and "spe- 
cific" immunization. 

9. State the cause of the following diseases, and the precautions 
necessary to be taken to limit their spread: (a) Consumption; (b) 
Smallpox; (c) Typhoid fever (enteric fever) ; (d) Diphtheria; 
(e) Asiatic Cholera; (f) Bubonic plague. 

10. (a) What is the exact meaning of the terms: Antiseptic, 
Disinfectants, Deodorants? (b) What is the essential difference 
between a disinfectant and a deodorant? (c) How should the 
bodies of those dead of infectious diseases be cared for? 

Thomas Harrison Montgomery, Jr., 

Professor of Zoology. 



ZOOLOGY IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

Work in Zoology is not required for entrance to The University 
of Texas, though it is very desirable that it should be taught in 
the secondary schools of this state, because it gives those who do 
not intend to enter the University a most interesting and broaden- 
ing field of knowledge; and to those who do intend to enter, an 
excellent foundation for scientific work. Those who intend to go 
into medicine immediately after their school course will find it 
of considerable practical advantage as an introduction to the study 
of anatomy, physiology, and embryology. 

My predecessor. Professor Wheeler, quoted as his recommenda- 
tion the suggestion given by the Zoological Committee of the Com- 
mittee on College Entrance Eequirements of the National Educa- 
tional Association (July, 1899, pp. 176-179). These recommenda- 
tions are excellent, but not at all detailed, so that I would offer the 
following ideas : 

Zoology treats of normal animal life in all its aspects, growth, 
structure, relation to the environment, individual and racial evolu- 
tion, etc. Its method is essentially inductive, and aims to interpret 
the facts. The field it presents embraces more phenomena than in 
any other line of human thought. It is intimately connected with 
Botany and Ethnology and Geology, with certain sides of Medicine 
and History, and more remotely with Physics and Chemistry. It 
may be undertaken as an aid to understanding any of these named 
subjects; as a part of any general liberal education; for its practical 
use in Agriculture, etc. ; or as a vocation in itself now that museums 
and teaching institutions are annually offering more positions in 
Zoology. 

Just because its scope is so large there are obviously many meth- 
ods of teaching it, and no particular one of them need be the 
only right one; but the following suggestions are the result of the 
experience of a good many teachers : 

(1) The first duty of a high school to a scientific course is to 
make it interesting: once the student has become interested he 
needs comparatively little help and encouragement. This is a 
cardinal point in the teaching of any natural science, and many 
have become disgusted as the result of bad and turbid teaching. 
So from the start, and particularly at the start, the aim must be 



102 Teaching in High Schools. 

first to present the most interesting side of the subject, and second, 
to combine with that what is scientifically most fundamental. The 
teacher has to determine what out of all the manifold ideas and 
facts are the most necessary, and then present the most interesting 
and most clear of these to his class. To do this the teacher must 
try to recollect his own mental attitude when he was at the age 
of his pupils. Get the student's interest by presenting the more 
striking of the great generalizations, then instill habits of accurate 
observation and good judgment in conclusions. There are many of 
these more important subjects ; and to be sedulously avoided is the 
teaching of many names, of zoological systems and of genealogical 
trees which have no significance to the beginner. Natural History 
can not be taught as a spelling lesson is, so much to be learned by 
heart. 

(2) The laboratory method is indispensable: Zoology can no 
more be taught by a book alone than can art or medicine. The text- 
books should be rather for the teacher than the students. It is 
perhaps best for the teacher to start the hour by a short quiz on 
the work of the preceding one; then to assign some short amount 
of text to be read after the accompanying laboratory period. The 
text-book should not be discarded, but be relegated to a second place. 
It is most desirable that there should be an equipment of a few 
compound microscopes. But these are not indispensable, and below 
I outline a course the greater part of which can be done without 
any microscopes, and the remainder by simple dissecting micro- 
scopes. The students need only a few instruments: a pair of fine 
dissecting scissors, of fine straight forceps, a scalpel or two (though 
a sharp penknife will do equally well) and ordinary needles 
mounted in wooden holders. Drawing should be rigidly required 
in the laboratory work, simple outline drawing, as the very best 
method of learning the fact, and for this purpose hard pencils and 
hard paper. Field work, both for collecting of material and for 
observation, should be frequently used to supplement the laboratory 
work. 

(3) Not less than five hours per week through half a year 
should be given to Zoology, one or two for classroom and the re- 
mainder for laboratory and field work. Or the course might run 
through an entire school year, with one hour class room and two 
or three hours laboratory work. 

(4) The following course is suggested for such schools as wish 



Zoology. 103 

to give zoological study, but feel they can not undertake the ex- 
pense of equipment. This course dispenses entirely with the use 
of compound microscopes, and all the material to be used is easily 
and cheaply obtained. 

1. Earth worm: external anatomy. 

2. Idem: anatomy of body wall, intestine, nervous system. 

3. Idem: anatomy of dissepiments, peritoneum, nephridia, blood 
vessels. 

4. Idem: the functions of the main organs, and the correlation 
by the nervous system (laboratory work continuing the anatomy). 

5. Cricket or Cockroach: external form, mode of producing the 
music. 

6. Idem: anatomy of intestine and tracheae. 

7. Idem: anatomy of reproductive organs and nervous system. 

8. Metamorphosis of cricket (or grasshopper) and butterfly. 

9. The bee: polymorphism of the individuals, the work of the 
various individuals (work on the differences of queens, drones and 
workers; structure of mouth parts and of honey basket). 

10. Idem: the building and stocking of the hive (laboratory 
work on the architecture) . 

11. Protective colors and structures of Insects (field study). 

12. Mimicry (study on Insects). 

13. The struggle for existence as a factor in mimicry and pro- 
tective coloration (field work for observation). 

14. Plant-lice: the alternation of generations. 

15. Eegeneration : experimental work on Planaria (the cut in- 
dividuals to be kept for several weeks and the changes drawn at 
regular intervals). 

16. Hydra: general structure and appearance. 

17. Idem: asexual generation. 

18. The egg and sexual generation (eggs of frog). 

19. Cleavage of the frog. 

20. Formation of the tadpole and metamorphosis into the frog 
(surface views of several stages). 

21. General processes of development: cell division of the egg, 
arrangement into tissues, folding of tissues, specialization of the 
parts (continued laboratory work on the development of the frog). 

22. Birds, structural adaptations to the mode of life : modifica- 
tions in the bills (woodpecker, warbler, sparrow, hawk, owl, duck, 
snipe) . 



104 Teaching in High Schools. 

23. Idem: structural modifications of the feet and legs to the 
mode of life. 

24. Migration of birds: migrants and non-migrants of the local 
fauna, routes and extent of migration (laboratory work in contin- 
uation of the preceding). 

25. Idem: time of migration, some of its factors. 

26. Birds: Architecture and care of the young (study of nests). 

27. Feathers, their structure, arrangement and use. 

28. Differences in domestic races of pigeons or fowls, due to 
human selection (comparison of such types). 

29. The principle of natural selection. 

30. Some general principles of evolution. 

(5) Eeference works for the teacher. Hertwig, Manual of 
Zoology (Henry Holt & Co., 1903). Bailey, Handbook of Birds 
of the Western United States (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1902). 
Newton, Dictionary of Birds (cheap edition, London, Adam Black). 
Lubbock, Ants, Bees and Wasps (International Scientific Series). 
Comstock, Insect Life (Appleton & Co., 1897). Packard, Ento- 
mology for Beginners (Henry Holt & Co., 1888). Darwin, Origin 
of Species, Animals and Plants under Domestication. Also special 
articles on the Bee, Prog, Birds, Regeneration, Evolution, etc., in 
the Encyclopedia Britannica. 

Thomas H. Montgomery, Jr., 

Professor of Zoology. 



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THE DETERMINING FACTORS OF THE CURRICULUM OF THE 
SECONDARY SCHOOL. 1 

Since the days of ancient Greece the curriculum of the second- 
ary school has undergone many changes. As educational ideals 
have been modified, at times even to the point of revolution, so 
courses of study have been as often recast. One of the most en- 
couraging truths which is revealed by even a dilettantish study of 
the history of education is that a compulsory curriculum for all 
succeeding generations of men is not only undesirable, but also 
positively impossible. This paper, therefore, without attempting 
to set up a curriculum to be worshipped by the schoolmasters of the 
present and the future, will be restricted to the discussion of gen- 
eral principles which should guide intelligent authorities in map- 
ping out the work of the secondary school. These principles will 
be briefly discussed under two heads, viz.: (1) civilization as a 
great determining factor; and (2) the individual student to be 
educated as the other. 

I. CIVILIZATION AS A DETERMINING FACTOR. 

The school is not an artificial institution existing for and by 
itself. It finds its reason-to-be in the needs of civilized life, and 
its chief glory in administering to those needs. Man is pre-eminent 
in the animal kingdom because he is an institution-building ani- 
mal, his highest wisdom being displayed when he perfects the school, 
by which insight into other forms of institutional life is gained, 
and by which, as a result of this insight, civilization is strengthened 
and enriched. If the doctrine be accepted that the school is main- 
tained for the sake of civilization, it follows that the arbitrary, arti- 
ficial curriculum, born of pedantry, or of zeal not according to 
knowledge, or of anything else tending to divorce the school from 
the world and its work, is not to be tolerated. The one great ques- 
tion, the correct answer to which will determine the culture-mate- 
rial seeking recognition in the secondary school is : Does it have 
such characteristics as give it organic relationship with the develop- 
ment of man for intellligent and effective service in and for civiliza- 
tion ? 



1 A paper read before the Texas State Teachers' Association. 



108 Teaching in High Schools. 

It would not be difficult to frame a curriculum which would con- 
duce more or less to the training of the so-called faculties of the 
mind, and which would, nevertheless, have little, if any, value so 
far as the demands of civilized life are concerned. As illustrations 
of this truth, one easily calls to mind the folly of scholasticism and 
of all forms of ascetic education. The important fact to be kept 
steadily in mind, is that it is the civilization of the present (em- 
phasis being placed, of course, upon its higher elements which are 
ever looking forward to the evolution of the future civilization from 
that of the present), which is to exercise determining power with 
respect to the studies to be assigned to the secondary school. The 
emperor of Germany, in his opening address at the famous school 
conference in 1890, manifests at least partial comprehension of the 
importance of adjusting school programs to modern needs, as the 
following extract from that address gives evidence: 

The main trouble lies in the fact that since 1870 the philologists have 
sat in their Gymnasien as beati possidentes, laying main stress upon the 
subject-matter, upon the learning and the knowing, but not upon the 
formation of character and upon the needs of life. Less emphasis is 
being placed upon practice [konneri] than theory [kennen], a fact that 
can easily be verified by looking at the requirements for examinations. 
Their underlying principle is that the pupil must, first of all, know as 
many things as possible. Whether this knowledge fits for life or not, is 
immaterial. If any one enters into a discussion with these gentlemen 
on this point, and attempts to show them that a young man ought to 
be prepared, to some extent at least, for life and its manifold problems, 
they will tell him that such is not the function of the school, its principal 
aim being the discipline or gymnastic of the mind, and that, if this 
gymnastic were properly conducted, the young man would be capable 
of doing all that is necessary in life. I am of the opinion that we can 
no longer be guided by this doctrine. 

To return to schools in general and to the Gymnasium in particular — I 
will say that I am not ignorant of the fact that in many circles I am looked 
upon as a fanatical opponent of the Gymnasium, and that I have there- 
fore often been played a? a trump-card in favor of other schools. Gen- 
tlemen, this is a misapprehension. Whoever has been a pupil of a Gym- 
nasium himself, and has looked behind the scenes, knows where the 
wrong lies. First of all, a national basis is wanting. The foundation of 
our Gymnasium must be German. It is our duty to educate men to be- 
come young Germans, and not young Greeks or Romans. We must re- 
linquish the basis which has been the rule for centuries, the old monastic 
education of the middle ages, when Latin and a little Greek [einbisschen 
Griechisch] were most important. These are no longer our standard ; we 



Determining Factors. 109 

must make German the basis, and German composition must be made 
the center around which everything else revolves. 1 

I have intimated that the Gorman emperor's insight into the 
matter at issue was only partial. His idea that the schools of 
the German nation arc to cultivate Germans, should it have free 
and unlimited course would forever arrest the development of 
Germany at the civic grade of culture, making it then impossible 
for her to arrive at the higher stage of human culture, which is the 
dominant idea in modern civilization. The doctrine for which this 
paper contends is. not that the school should make only Germans, 
or Americans, or Englishmen, hut that the all-controlling purpose 
of the schools of every nation should be to make men who, by no 
means delinquent with respect to civic duties, have an abiding 
sense of their obligations to humanity. The lives of such men are 
in harmony with the spirit and the letter of the declaration of the 
Roman emperor, "As Antonine, my country is Rome; as a man, the 
world/' 

It is this doctrine of real humanism in which Huxley believed, 
his faith being nowhere more clearly expressed than in this para- 
graph, to be found in his address delivered in 1868 at the South 
London Working Men's College: 

The politicians tell us that von must educate the masses because they 
are goring to be masters. The clergy join in the cry for education, for 
they affirm that the people are drift inn away from church and chapel 
into the broadest infidelity. The manufacturers and the capitalists swell 
the chorus lustily. They declare that ignorance makes bad workmen, 
that England will soon be unable to turn out cotton goods or steam en- 
gines cheaper than other people; and then Jehabocl! Ichabod! the glory 
will be departed from us. A few voices are lifted up In favor of the doc- 
trine that the masses should be educated because they are men and women 
with unlimited capacities for being, doing, and suffering, and that it is as 
true now as it ever was, that the people perish for lack of knowledge. 2 

Huxley was too broad to be only a Briton. He understood 
that the common element in humanity, reason, is that which makes 
human culture possible, and that, in proportion as this element, 
rather than the accidental circumstances of nativity or race, or 
power, or wealth, is honored in a nation, is the true life of the 
nation advanced and are the higher interests of humanity sub- 
served. One could not, for example, doubt that if both the British 

^Educational Review, Vol. I, pp. 202-3. 
= Huxley, Science and Education Essays, p. 77. 



110 Teaching in High Schools. 

and the Boers had been guided by the dictates of reason, the war 
in South Africa would have been impossible; and that, if Spain in 
her conduct toward the Cubans had been reasonable, she would not 
have lost her possessions in the Western World. 

The contention that the curriculum of the secondary school 
should be fashioned according to the ideals of modern life, implies 
that past systems of education in their totality are to be looked 
upon with suspicion, for they prevailed in times far different from 
our own, and they were maintained to suit the views of life in 
many particulars directly at variance with the notions we moderns 
cherish. It is not contended, however, that everything in the past 
is to be ignored, simply because it is in the past. One can conceive 
of no stronger evidence of educational insanity than failure to 
recognize that the present is the result of evolution from the past, 
and that existing ideals are but the union of past ideals which, by 
reason of their permanent value, have survived. 

Taking it for granted that no one will question the claim of 
modern civilization to be a determining factor in the formation 
of the curriculum of the modern secondary school, it may be well 
to review the more important particular lines of culture this factor 
determines. 

In the first place, training in language is of primary importance. 
As Aristotle pointed out centuries ago, language, constituting as 
it does a characteristic difference between man and brute, makes 
possible bonds of social union founded upon the needs other 
than those of mere nature, and consequently furnishes an indis- 
pensable basis for human culture. It is through the real study 
of language that insight is to be gained into the nature of thought, 
and it is, therefore, language-study that forms an important part 
of the great thought-group of studies in the world of learning. 
Any instruction in language which regards the mere forms of 
thought as of transcendent importance, and which disregards the 
real thought itself, tends to cultivate a habit largely prevalent 
even in our own day, the habit of talking volubly without actually 
saying anything. 

The study of language, furthermore, furnishes the means 
whereby the pupil may become possessed of that great inheritance 
to which he is entitled, and which embraces the greatest of all the 
arts, literature. There is no surer evidence of the highly civilized 
man than that he is a lover and a reader of the best books, those 
books which reveal with transcendent beauty and power the strug- 



Determining Factors. Ill 

gles of the human spirit toward the realization of its highest ideals. 
If the educational system of the old Greeks has in it any lesson for 
the schoolmaster of today, it is this : The nation which cultivates 
assiduously in the minds of the young the knowledge and appre- 
ciation of great classics is engaged in a work of the highest prac- 
tical importance, for it is doing that which vitally affects its own 
moral and spiritual welfare, and it is as true with respect to 
nations as to individuals that only moral and spiritual excellence 
can endure — -a truth which may be overlooked in these days of 
territorial expansion, of billion-dollar industrial investments, and 
of stupendous material development in every direction. 

The subject of language-study may be looked at from another 
standpoint. In the elementary school the pupil learns in an em- 
pirical and fragmentary way something of his own language; in 
the secondary school he should begin the reflective study of the 
vernacular in order that he may eventually gain such mastery of 
it as will insure him the ability to use it with ease, precision and 
power. The belief, widespread for many centuries, that the 
youth could, without sustained and systematic effort, acquire this 
ability, has not until our own day manifested signs of obsolescence. 
Leaders of educational thought are now, however, agreed that the 
"acquisition of a competent knowledge of English is not an easy, 
but a laborious undertaking, for the average youth— not a matter 
of entertaining reading, but of serious study; that indeed there 
is no subject in which skilled and systematic instruction is of 
greater value." x With respect to paying serious attention to the 
vernacular, the ancient Greeks have given the world another valua- 
ble lesson, for their linguistic training was acquired exclusively 
through the medium of their own tongue, other languages being 
absolutely proscribed. 

The folly of attempting to substitute a foreign language for the 
vernacular in the training of the young is nowhere illustrated better 
than in the utter failure of the famous schoolmaster, Sturm, in his 
experiment, carried on for a long series of years in Strassburg. 
With a determination which would brook no opposition, he en- 
deavored to restore the long-lost skill in the use of the two great 
languages of the Greeks and Romans. He, accordingly, prohibited 
both teachers and pupils from conversation in German. Even 
games were not permissible without the condition that the speech 



1 Eliot, Educational Reform, pp. 99, 100. 



112 Teaching in High Schools. 

employed therein be confined to Latin. His aim, which was to 
denationalize the young Germans, was not forgotten by him for a 
moment. His lengthy and detailed directions to the teachers of 
the several grades in every instance had direct bearing upon the 
accomplishment of his great purpose, which was to see the men of 
his own age writing, haranguing, and speaking Greek and Latin 
with power equal to that which flourished in the noblest days 
of Athens and Rome. After many years spent in earnest 
endeavor to accomplish his cherished idea, he himself confessed 
his total failure ; but, strange to say, he ascribed the caivse of his 
failure to the teachers and himself, and not to the fact that Latin 
was not the native tongue of the boys he had been training. Never- 
theless, even Sturm could not help realizing that eloquence is by no 
means confined to Latin, for he observed that Italians, Spaniards, 
Frenchmen and Germans could be eloquent in their own tongues. 
With respect to Luther, he said : 

"Had there been no Reformation, had the sermons of Luther never ap- 
peared, and had he written nothing at all save his translation of the Bible, 
this alone would have insured him an immortality of fame. For, if we com- 
pare with this German translation either the Greek, the Latin, or any 
other, we shall find that they are all far behind it both in perspicuity, 
purity, choice of expression, and resemblance to the Hebrew original. I be- 
lieve that, as no painter has ever been able In surpass Apelles, so no 
scholar will ever be able to produce a translation of the Bible that shall 
excel Luther's." 1 

But, because the work of the world demands thai each worker be 
familiar with his own language, and be able to levy greal contri- 
butions upon it, it is by no means certain that the modern second- 
ary school should be patterned after that of ancient Greece by 
forbidding the study of a foreign language. The Committee on 
College Entrance Requirements, in its report made to the National 
Educational Association in 1899, is distinctly favorable to the study 
of foreign language. It is not necessary, I take it, to enter into 
an extended argument to show the justice of this position. The 
value of the literatures of Greece and Rome can be questioned by no 
scholar. How these literatures are inextricably interwoven with 
the modern literatures is evident upon the most superficial exam- 
ination. It is, therefore, easy to conclude that the study of 
ancient literature will directly as well as indirectly, aid one in 
the appreciation of modern. Furthermore, the linguistic training 

'Barnard, German Teachers and Educators, p. 222. 



Determining Factors. 113 

to be derived from the study of a foreign language, ancient or 
modern, is of positive value with respect to the vernacular. There 
is no better training in English than that which requires a transla- 
tion from a foreign tongue into the idiom of our vernacular. The 
opinion is here advanced that by high-school students that will not 
go to college, as well as by those that will have the privilege of 
instruction in higher institutions, benefit of the highest order is 
to be derived from three or four years' study of at least one foreign 
language. 

Another human nature study which is demanded by modern 
times is that of history. The value of this subject with respect 
to guidance and also to discipline has in recent years been acknowl- 
edged. History is not concerned so much with names and dates 
and isolated facts, as it is with human motives connected there- 
with. It is not so much interested in any given set of details as 
it is with the principles by which those concrete data are bound 
together in a series of causes and results. The study of history 
should, therefore, afford the student a basis for the interpretation 
of modern life. It is believed that the stage of adolescence, which 
is the high-school stage, is a particularly opportune time for the 
slinly of that subject which deals with the significance of human 
action and which gives to the youth entering upon the transition 
stage just preceding manhood conceptions of many-sided human 
nature. In the elementary school the child is taught through 
stories and narratives and biographies many things which will lie 
of service in his future historical study; but it must lie borne in 
mind that this elementary work is scarcely to he considered ;is real 
history. The world needs men that are students of relations, that 
can gather facts, classify them, and interpret them, and that can 
understand processes of transformation of idea into reality. Cer- 
tainly, there is no greater demand made upon the citizen of a mod- 
ern state than to be able to do just such thinking as is required in 
anything like an adequate study of history. 

It is not necessary to discuss at length other secondary-school 
subjects determined by modern civilization; but they cannot be 
dismissed without a word. The 'intricate and almost infinite ap- 
plication of mathematics to the industrial arts is sufficient justi- 
fication for its place in the program of the secondary school. 
Mathematics is the tool by which man has conquered nature, and 
it must forever remain an effective instrument for ministering to 
his comfort and convenience. Its disciplinary value has been 



114 Teaching in High Schools. 

greatly overrated, because it lias been believed to extend to fields 
of discipline to which, by reason of its nature and limitations, it 
must forever be foreign; but its value for the training of obser- 
vation and reasoning with respect to the phenomena of its own 
field, is incalculable and indispensable, and civilization is in no 
whimsical mood when she demands that tbe school afford excel- 
lent opportunity for the acquirement of mathematical knowledge 
and discipline. 

The great natural-science realm of learning has likewise re- 
ceived the unmistakable approval of modern civilization. The 
time was when it was considered unworthy and even impious to 
study the phenomena of nature. Within the last century, however, 
through the marvelous contributions of science, she has demon- 
strated her worth as a necessary factor in human life. It may be 
truly asserted that more and greater changes have been wrought 
by science upon our material life within the last few years than 
have been wrought in any thousand years before the nineteenth 
century. It may be said, furthermore, that the method of science, 
as well as its progress, has no small effect upon the spiritual side 
of man, for its method is the only true method to be employed in 
the study of any problem, endeavoring, as it does, to cultivate an 
open attitude of mind, the love of truth, the willingness to adopt 
it, and the courage to stand for it. If the school is to be kept in 
touch with real life, it can not afford to neglect this great group of 
subjects, so admirably adapted to give the youth such train- 
ing as will enable him to feel at home in this world, and to face it 
at least without fear. 

Again, the needs of modern life make large drafts upon the 
physical forces of man. In no former age of the world have 
health and strength and endurance been so desirable and so neces- 
sary. That the obligations to meet these demands are scracely 
acknowledged by the makers of school programs, is no evidence that 
the obligation does not exist. It has been demonstrated beyond all 
doubt, and over and over again, that development of the mind with- 
out training of the body is a useless, not to say a wicked, system 
of education, and yet adequate provision for physical training is to 
be found in comparatively few secondary schools in America. 
Here is an opportunity for a reform to be led by an educational 
crusader worthy to rank with Pestalozzi and Horace Mann. 

Let me briefly recapitulate the discussion up to this point: (1) 
Civilization is a determining factor of the curriculum of the second- 



Determining Factors. 115 

ary school. (2) The civilization that is a determining factor is 
modern civilization. (3) Modern civilization requires that the 
secondary school curriculum provide (a) for physical training; (b) 
for language, including the vernacular and foreign tongues; (c) for 
representatives of other great groups of subjects pertaining to 
human nature; and (d)iov yet other groups of studies relating to 
the natural world. 

To summarize the whole matter, modem civilization requires 
that the many-sided phases of modern life which are concerned 
with problems pertaining to the external and internal worlds, be 
considered as the objective basis of the curriculum, and that due 
regard be paid to each of these several phases. To adopt a frag- 
mentary view by over-emphasizing a study adapted to one phase 
only, is the result of distorted vision, and will, in the end, defeat 
its own purpose. All forms of human activity are sacred, and all 
subjects having for their ultimate purpose the development of these 
several activities are equally important and honorable. 

But, while it is demanded that representatives of all the great 
groups of learning be found in the school curriculum, our civili- 
zation, more than any other the world has ever known, believes in 
the wisdom of division of labor and, consequently does not ask 
that the curriculum be the same for all pupils, regardless of qual- 
ifications and regardless of individual characteristics and interests. 
This statement leads to the discussion of the second determining 
factor of the curriculum of the secondary school. 

II. THE INDIVIDUAL AS A DETERMINING FACTOR. 

By certain wise men who are guilty of the folly of setting up a 
theory and then compelling facts to conform thereto, it is argued 
that the wisdom and experience of schoolmasters should, at least by 
this time, have been able to evolve a uniform course of study well 
suited to all youths aspiring to a liberal education. The human 
mind is ever searching for unifying principles, and it is no wonder 
that it has been a favorite doctrine of educators that there is one 
plan of education, in comparison with which other schemes are 
decidedly inferior. For years in the olden time the triviwrn, con- 
sisting of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics, was considered the 
sacred trinity of the secondary school; and it is a well-known fact 
that since the curriculunrof the Renaissance was enthroned in the 
pedagogic heart, many of the greatest scholars and greatest teachers 
have honestly believed that in Latin, Greek and mathematics is to 



116 Teaching in High Schools. 

be found another sacred trinity, and that they are the only discipli- 
nary studies pa?~ excellence. No one can exaggerate the blessings 
to the human race following the discovery of the languages and lit- 
erature of Greece and Eome. For the revival of humanism, whose 
chief instruments were the classics, the modern world cannot have 
too great reverence; of the intrinsic values of Latin and Greek and 
mathematics as instruments of culture to-day, it would be difficult 
to form too high an estimate. But, in order to accord high honor 
to these three subjects, it is not necessary to declare that they shall 
be studied by all people desirous of obtaining a thorough educa- 
tion. To prescribe them for all students simply because of their 
disciplinary value is assuming that all minds are patterned after a 
common mold and are, therefore, responsive to the same forms of 
discipline. The belief that there is a uniform boy is a myth, and 
any system of education founded upon that myth is irrational. 

It is just at this point that the modern graded-school system is 
most vulnerable. The greatest weakness of that system, and the 
one which in recent years has been most clearly pointed out, is 
the policy which makes the idea of uniformity dominant, the policy 
which is founded upon the delusion which contends that all children 
are born with equal and like powers of mind, and that the same 
treatment el' these powers in different individuals will produce the 
same results. Now, upon even slight observation and reflection, 
every one reaches the conclusion that children are not born equal 
as to mental power any more than they come into this world equal 
with respect to physical being. Everyone knows that even children 
found in the same family manifest the greatest differences as to 
mental characteristics and adaptations. Any institution, therefore, 
which by uniform treatment seeks to destroy the personality of the 
individual, is pursuing a policy which prevents both the individual 
and society from enjoying the development of his peculiar talents 
to the highest degree. 

In the selection of culture-material for 4 the elementary school, 
it is not so necessary to regard the characteristic differences of chil- 
dren, because the elementary course of study is primarily intended 
to place the child in possession of the school arts, which he will 
afterwards use regardless of the branches of learning his special 
powers and interests may lead him to undertake. This view with 
respect to the elementary school is itself questioned by some; but 
the student in the secondary school has certainly reached the age 
when he begins to disclose his individual interests, and school 



Determining Factors. 117 

authorities can perform no greater service to him and to the 
world than to furnish him abundant opportunity to follow the 
lead of his special aptitudes. If the secondary school were so 
conducted as to convince parents that it furnishes every youth 
what is best for himself, and if the youth were likewise possessed 
of the same idea, we would never again be called upon to listen to 
a series of answers to the question, Why are so few boys to be 
found in the higher grades of the public schools ? 

That colleges and universities are recognizing the wisdom of 
consulting the needs of the individual is evidenced by the fact 
that their courses of study are largely optional. In our own 
country there is not a reputable institution of higher learning in 
which the old four-year curriculum, prescribed for all students, 
obtains. In Germany for many years absolutely free election of 
university courses has prevailed. The American universities have 
further shown their disregard of the idea of uniformity by allow- 
ing different studies to be presented for entrance. The president 
of the oldest university in this country in his annual report of 
1896-7, thus expressed the view which has year by year been gain- 
ing in popularity among thoughtful students of education : 

The future attitude of Harvard is likely to be, not continued insistence 
upon certa'in school studies as essential preparation for college, but in- 
sistence that the gate to university education should not be closed on the 
candidate in consequence of his omission at school of any particular studies, 
provided that his school course has been so composed as to afford him a 
sound training of some sort. * * * Harvard University has long rep- 
resented the principle of election of college studies, and had found nothing 
but advantage in the application of that principle. It is natural that the 
college should seek to further the adoption of the same principle in second- 
ary schools and in requirements for admission to college. 

The University of Texas is in harmony with the modern view 
on this subject, for the only absolute requirements for entrance 
are English and elementary mathematics (algebra and plane 
geometry). The history requirement may be absolved in four dif- 
ferent ways— by presenting general history or American history or 
English history or by a combination of English and American his- 
tory. The other entrance requirements are elective. Of foreign 
languages one or more may be selected from the group composed of 
Latin, Greek, French, German, and Spanish, and the privilege of 
election is extended with respect to the natural sciences, physiology 
and hygiene, physical geography, botany, physics and chemistry. 



118 Tea riling in High Schools. 

The chief objection urged against any attempt to consult the 
special preference and capacity of the high-school pupil is the 
contention that the policy of election, founded, as it is, upon the 
doctrine of interest, will lead the pupil to avoid the performance 
of any task not particularly agreeable to himself. Now, no one 
questions the great desirability of training the student to habits 
of industry. Educational thinkers of every faith and order unite 
in the belief that all the functions of the school have ultimately 
but one purpose — to add to the number of the world's patient, con- 
tinuous, effective workers; but the objection just now mentioned 
does not correctly represent the results of the application of the 
principle of election. The charge itself is open to criticism, for 
it is founded upon a misconception of the doctrine it attacks. The 
great value derived from the performance of a disagreeable task 
arises, not from the fact that the task is disagreeable, but because 
it is organically related with a desirable object. The adult whose 
life is one round of disagreeable acts, having no connection with 
agreeable results, is not living the life a human being ought to 
live, but is dragging out a miserable existence, from which all joy 
and hope are eliminated, and compared with which such slavery as 
existed in the Southern states is a paradise. The truth is, that 
even the ascetic of old daily persecuted his body, not because he 
rejoiced in suffering per se, but because he gloried in ordering his 
life in such a way as he believed would eventually place his feet 
upon the spiritual mountain-tops, and give him visions of glory 
for which his soul had long been yearning. 

Again, the etymology of the word "interest" (inter and est) 
discloses its educational significance. Any study becomes full of 
interest in the pedagogic sense when the student rightly considers 
it vitally connected with the process of his own self-realization. If 
this vital connection be not clearly perceived by him, or at least 
strongly believed by him to exist, the fundamental motive to strong 
and persistent effort is lost. Seeing no justification for the bur- 
dens laid upon him in prosecuting the study, he refuses to bear 
them altogether or he expends his energies in devising ways and 
means to bear as few of them as possible. The compulsory pursuit 
of any distasteful study thus leads the pupil to be satisfied with 
only partial scholastic success, and leaves with him no stimulus 
to prosecute that subject in its higher aspects. At the earliest 
opportunity he will not only refuse to press forward to complete 
mastery, but, in conformity with a well-known law of the mind, 



Determining Factors. 119 

he will also proceed to divest himself as nearly as may he, of what 
little knowledge or discipline he may have suffered himself to 
acquire. This psychological principle is well expressed by Vergil, 
when he puts into the mouth of Aeneas the words, "animus memi- 
nisse horret, luctuque refugit." x 

To what extent the adaptation of the curriculum to the individ- 
ual student should be carried, is a problem to which many solu- 
tions may be offered; but the doctrine which this paper seeks to 
emphasize is that, no matter what answer be given to the question 
concerning the degree of election in the secondary school, some 
form of election, by the student, by his parents, by his teachers, or 
by them all acting conjointly, is indispensable if his own capacity 
-and special talents are to be considered and developed. 

The two fundamental doctrines which have been treated in this 
paper, constitute an indestructible foundation for the curriculum 
of the secondary school. Local conditions, and others not so local, 
now prevent the adequate application of these doctrines ; but there 
is abundant evidence to justify the belief that the future has in 
store a day when the secondary school will discharge every reason- 
able obligation to the individual pupil and to the civilization of 
which his life is to be a component part. To help speed the coining 
of that day is the pleasure, as it is the duty, of every lover of learn- 
ing and every lover of man. 

W. S. Sutton, 
Professor of Education. 



Vergil, JEmid, Bk. II, 1. 12. 



JUL 10 V 

D 



LIBRARY OP CUNbKhbb 



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